Sunny’s Modern Diner is the fourth restaurant in the RauDZ Creative Concepts Ltd. (RCC) family.  It opened in April 2018 at 235 Bernard Ave, around the corner from other RCC hotspots RauDZ Regional Table and micro bar • bites.

The name Sunny’s is a tribute to the owners’ shared photogenic golden retriever and a play on the sunshine of the Okanagan Valley and the restaurant’s prime Lake Okanagan location.

Like the pre-fab stainless steel dining cars of the original diners, Sunny’s floor plan is a long and narrow footprint.  Framed by a reclaimed brick wall, and a soaring 20′ ceiling topped with wooden timbers, designer Tim Bullinger of Arca 3 Design Studio satisfied our craving for diner nostalgia with a modern twist.

The culinary team led by award-winning Chef Butters and Chef de Cuisine Robyn Sigurdson offer a menu of fresh, innovative takes on diner fare.  Food Network’s Big Food Bucket List included a stop at Sunny’s for their latest season with host John Catucci learning the secrets behind some of the most popular dishes on the menu.

Sunny’s Modern Diner is open Thursday – Monday at 7:30 am – 3:00 pm.

micro bar • bites in downtown Kelowna is an expansive 900 square feet of bar and small bites.  Chef Butters jokes that the space is so small that “we don’t even capitalize the ‘m’ of micro”.

The compact space is designed around the unique bar built by local wood craftsman Will Brundula.  Constructed from three species of reclaimed wood, the end cuts are put together like a jig-saw puzzel to create a one-of-a-kind surface that anchors the space.  Will also constructed the trestle community tale, front door and bar top at RauDZ Regional Table.  Over the bar is suspended a 20-foot wooden chandelier complete with dozens of antiqued-style caged lights.

Chef Butters along with Chef de Cuisine James Hanna rotate the ‘creatively simple’ tapas and large plate menu bi-monthly.  micro has 8 rotating taps of both local and international brew.  You can do a world wine tour without leaving your bar stool with a blackboard wine list that changes regularly.

micro is open Tuesday – Saturday from 3:00 pm til 10:00 pm.

Restaurant innovators, RauDZ Creative Concepts Ltd. (RCC), are bringing their latest idea to life in downtown Kelowna.  Like ‘The Okanagan Table’ cookbook that encouraged us to get in the kitchen and cook, this new space, ‘The Okanagan Table – kitchen | events | catering’ continues to share that enthusiasm with almost endless opportunities to enjoy food and its preparation.

Located in a beautiful heritage building at 1571 Pandosy Street, steps from popular local retailers Mosaic Books and Olive & Elle, The Okanagan Table – kitchen | events | catering adds a fourth location to the successful RCC restaurant group, consisting of RauDZ Regional Table, micro bar & bites and Sunny’s Modern Diner

The Okanagan Table – kitchen | events | catering is unlike their other spaces.  It’s not a restaurant; it’s a unique venue for use as a kitchen, customized event space, off-site catering preparation.

In addition, this unique space provides the setting for almost unlimited creative events.  With seating for 30 or stand up reception space for 50, the space can host chef-led cooking classes, wine education seminars and tastings, and private events.  Moveable telescopic tables run down the center of the space providing what Chef Rod Butters describes as the ‘ultimate chef’s table’ dining.  What used to be reserved exclusively for VIPs can now be yours at The Okanagan Table – kitchen | events | catering with guests seated steps away from the kitchen action, and menus created especially for the evening with wine pairings carefully curated to heighten the experience.

Visit www.theokanagantable.com for more information.

Chef Rod Butters of RauDZ Regional Table and micro bar • bites has finally completed a project that had been long on his mind and close to his heart – his first cookbook. Working with publisher Figure 1 in Vancouver, The Okanagan Table: The Art of Everyday Home Cooking hit the bookshelves in summer 2017.

“At its heart, this book is about my passionate relationship to food. I wrote this book, quite simply, for people who love to cook. It’s not intended to blow our minds or turn cooking into a lab experiment. Cooking should be inclusionary, not exclusionary. We gather in the kitchen because it’s comforting, and it harkens back to the happy feelings that a warm, aromatic kitchen instilled in us as kids” explains Butters.

As the name suggests, this cookbook is for the home cook. Butters states “I want you to get this book dirty – dog-ear the pages, write in the margins, stuff your grandmother’s best recipes for Swedish meatballs and zucchini loaf between the pages.”

The Okanagan Table: The Art of Everyday Home Cooking boasts over 270 pages including 80 recipes and more than 120 photos by local photographer, David McIlvride. The recipes include some favourites from Butters including Oat Crusted Arctic Char, a classic on the menu at RauDZ Regional Table, the addictive Spring Pea Soup that celebrates that season in the valley and even a few cocktails to be enjoyed with appetizers and friends. Many of the dishes also have a suggested Okanagan wine, beer or cocktail pairing, selected by Audrey Surrao, a respected wine competition judge and co-owner of RauDZ Regional Table.

Signed copies are available at all of the RauDZ Creative Concepts restaurants as well as online at Chapters Indigo and Amazon.