Theo's Featured in the Edmontonian, Menu Magic!

"This maturing of the culinary sector is also reflected in several key restaurants in town. A tourist and local favourite is Theo’s, built in 1976.

Here they serve not only traditional Greek dishes but what owner Nikos Theodosakis calls Okanagan/ Mediterranean cuisine.

“Some of the same greens found in Crete grow wild in the Okanagan. So we’ve incorporated them into the menu.”

He’s working very closely with his suppliers on produce. He says they can give him the quality and quantity that he needs for his restaurant.

“It’s organic and it’s fresh.”

Local wines obviously factor heavily into the equation. So does education.

“In 1976, we had three local wines on our list and two of them had Baby Duck in their names. Today, we have 118 Okanagan wines on our list. I’m trying to educate the public to the difference between the lower-end wines and the upper-end.”

Nikos also regularly trains his staff on how to properly present the wine at the table. He takes them to some of the farm-gate wineries to see how wine is made, and to learn about the different grapes used in wine production and what they taste like in the end product.

Like Cameron and Dana, Nikos keeps food preparation simple. He says the future is in returning to the traditional roots of Greek cuisine with locally grown wines and ingredients. Theo’s is certainly a destination spot for the serious food lover.

And an absolute must is to check-out the fine dining restaurants and bistros located in many of the wineries. Here chefs create wonderful dishes that are expertly matched to the wines produced on site. Most menus offer wine pairing suggestions for each item."

For the whole article, including a tantalizing recipe, click here!

Frommer's Review, 2002 (pdf 44kb)

The Financial Post Award

In October of 1998 Theo’s Restaurant had the privilege of receiving the National Post award for Business in the Arts.

This national award has been awarded for the last twenty years to one business in Canada which has made an outstanding contribution towards the arts in their community.

Theo’s was nominated by the Art Gallery of the South Okanagan for the partnership it has through the Theo’s Art Auction.

At the beginning of June each year, the Greek paintings and photographs come down from Theo’s walls and are replaced with donated artworks by Okanagan artists. Then, after a couple of weeks, the restaurant is closed one evening to the public and fills with local art gallery supporters who in between sips of Retsina and nibbles of Lamb bid on all the artwork.

The Auction, now in its 22nd year, has generated over half a million dollars in revenues towards the direct operation of the Gallery.

This last year, for the first time, there was a tie for the National Post Award and so a bronze statue was handed out to both Theo’s Restaurant of Penticton and Syncrude Canda.

At the reception at the Royal Ontario Museum where the award was presented, Nikos Theodosakis accepted the award by saying "It is wonderful that a small family owned restaurant in the middle of British Columbia could be recognized for having an impact on its community, and by recognizing small business in Canada, perhaps other small business will be encouraged to do more. There are a million small businesses in Canada, and if each created even one cultural event, there would be a million new cultural events in Canada. That would be truly exciting!"