Wineries open restaurants
What does a contemporary farmhouse look like? Well, it has stone walls, high, beamed ceiling, polished concrete floors, a metal roof and a wall of retractable glass stretching to the view of vineyards and Okanagan Lake.
Such a new building sits atop the hill at Kelowna’s CedarCreek Winery and houses the winery’s just-opened Home Block Restaurant.
The year-round dining room has both indoor and outdoor seating and features a wine country cooking by chef Neil Taylor.
When my wife, Kerry, and I dropped by for a sneak taste, we savoured the hake fish with handcut fries paired with glasses of CedarCreek 2018 Platinum Block 1 Rose, the wine that recently won best Rose at the Spring Okanagan Wine Festival’s B.C. Best of Varietal Wine Awards.
Also on offer is squid-ink spaghetti, risotto, wood-grilled burger, chicken cooked under a brick and hanger steak.
We finished off the meal with sticky toffee pudding, but the dark-chocolate budino (custard) and rhubarb and almond tart also looked good.
The wine list, of course, includes all of CedarCreek’s wines by the glass and bottle.
The restaurant is part of an extensive rebuild and remodel at the winery.
The new tasting room and wine-and-gift shop will open late next month.
The Terrace now open at Mission Hill
Speaking of spectacular places to eat and drink, the al fresco Terrace at West Kelowna’s Mission Hill Family Estate is now open for the season.
To spotlight some of the ingredients being used by the restaurant, Mission Hill had a Spring Farm-to-Table lunch last weekend in the separate loggia space.
Chef Adam Vaughan created three courses of burrata cheese salad, chicken with black kale and chocolate with rhubarb.
All dishes featured produce from farmer Jordan Marr of Unearthed Fine Veggies & Herbs in Kelowna.
Marr’s organic produce will be used in recipes all season long on the Terrace.
The welcome wine at the lunch was the sparkling Exhilaration and 2018 Reserve Rose and the courses were paired, respectively, with 2018 Terroir Collection Sauvignon Blanc-Semillion, 2017 Reserve Meritage and 2013 Quatrain red blend.
The Terrace is open for lunch, dinner and tapas.