Kalamansi Restaurant set to open this March in Kelowna
Kelowna’s most buzzed about new restaurant digs is set to open this March. Kalamansi on Bernard Avenue is the passion project of favourite local chef Alex Lavroff. Alex is known for his dynamic flavours and use of exotic ingredients as a flair to his locally-focussed menu.
Alex spent time heading the kitchen operations at Summerhill Winery’s Sunset Organic Bistro as well as most recently at O’Rourke’s Peak Cellars’ Garden Bistro. Kalamansi is a take-out concept focussing almost exclusively on local ingredients – excluding citrus fruits (sourced from the West Coast), spices and olive oils. There will be lots of vegetarian options and as for drinks, wine will not be the focus here.
“We are also launching an interesting non-alcoholic drink program with custom kombucha flavours we collaborated with and medicinal fresh drinks that are actually good for you that maintain their nutritional properties,” he says.
Kalamansi is a “luxury take out” concept. Named for one of Chef Lavroff’s favourite ingredients, Kalamansi is a citrus fruit and is the baseline of flavour in many of his dishes.
“I say luxury take out because we are using literally the best ingredients that I’ve been able to source throughout my career," he says. "We will only be using farmers and artisans from British Columbia. The goal is to create a place to eat that is actually good for you, very fast so you don’t have to wait, and absolutely delicious. We want it to look beautiful and push the limits of what we think take-out food can be. I feel like people are ordering in so much now and the options are limited and usually not very good for you, so we are trying to provide something new that is what you are craving to eat maybe 3-4 times a week.”
Love the concept and philosophy here.
“You are what you eat, and food is medicine, and we want to be the new farm to table,” he says. "This is a version of a dish that will be on the menu: It’s seared tuna from Codfathers, a pesto made out of flower petals which we began producing for the restaurant in the summertime, pumpkin cream, apple, and our signature calamansi vinaigrette."
I cannot wait.
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