Photo: Keith Lacey/Local Journalism Initiative

Restaurant manager Aditya Charewaj at Palmers Kitchen + Spirits at the Four Points by Sheraton Penticton at the Convention Centre.

The old idiom that states if at first you don’t succeed, try again has certainly paid off for a restaurant located in the sparkling new Four Points by Sheraton Penticton at the Convention Centre in the city’s north end.

Palmer Kitchen + Spirits has only been open since early November and management at the hotel is thrilled with the community response.

The restaurant replaces the former Palmer Steakhouse.

Management with that restaurant surprised many in the community when it announced in late October that it was closing shop after less than one year in business.

The new restaurant is located in the same space near the front entrance to the hotel.

The hotel itself was opened in December of 2023. The restaurant was a separate operation where space was leased.

Mia Gomez, sales and marketing co-ordinator for Mundi Hotel Enterprises Inc., which owns and operates the Four Points Hotel, said the new and improved Palmers Kitchen + Spirits restaurant has taken over the same space and is doing “fantastic” since it opened in early November.

The hotel has done solid business since opening and the new restaurant is doing the same, said Gomez.

“It’s a wonderful property,” she said. “It’s very modern and the amenities are wonderful. It’s also very well located in Penticton near the South Okanagan Events Centre.”

The steakhouse restaurant was well received when it opened and management was surprised when the original operators decided to close shop and turn over the keys over.

Mundi Hotels made the decision to take over the space and open Palmer Kitchen + Spirits and expand and improve the menu and the results have been overwhelmingly positive, said Gomez.

“We never really closed, contrary to what some people think” she said.

“We just switched administration and took over the next day. We’ve just been working on introducing the new branding and new menu and all of that.”

Having hotel management take over the space has allowed Mundi Hotel Enterprises to offer room and dinner options, including breakfast and brunch options in stay packages, she said.

“It has been going great,” she said. “We have really good communications with the team running the restaurant and the team has really good communications with the hotel management as well.”

Restaurant manager Aditya Charewaj worked in hotel operations for Mundi Hotels for years, but his passion is food and beverage. He’s been doing a great job improving the menu and drink options she said.

“He has many years of experience in the food industry and he’s very happy to be back managing a restaurant,” she said.

The new menu offers many more food options than the steakhouse did, she said.

“Our menu is really comprehensive and we have a wide variety of dishes,” she said. “We have pastas, different main course meat options and we have numerous international dishes. That is the core of what Palmer is right now. We’re concentrating on international blends, but also committing to be local as well. That means using a lot of Okanagan fruits and vegetables.

“Our drink menu of beers and wines are also almost exclusively from the Okanagan.”

The main dining room hasn’t undergone significant changes since Mundi Hotels took over, but there have been many new artistic upgrades to change the atmosphere “to reflect the new name and new branding.”

Guests and local residents have also welcomed the introduction of daily breakfast and brunch seven days a week, which wasn’t offered at the old restaurant, she said.

A children’s menu has also been introduced.

There is also a private loft available for private events. The capacity is for 40 people and offers a custom menu if desired, she said.

Evening happy hours have also been introduced from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. daily.

Breakfast is served beginning at 7 a.m. seven days a week and continues until 11 a.m. Monday to Friday and noon on the weekends.

For more information on Palmer Kitchen + Spirits, visit: palmerpenticton.ca or phone 778-476-9202

This story originally appeared in the Penticton Herald and is shared via the Local Journalism Initiative