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Kelowna diner makes a splash on national TV

Sunny’s Modern Diner is the second Okanagan restaurant to be featured on Big Food Bucket List

Another Kelowna restaurant is making its debut on national television.

Sunny’s Modern Diner will premier on the show Big Food Bucket List with host John Catucci on Saturday, Feb. 20. The plan was to originally have the diner on the show last year, but due to COVID-19, travel and gathering restrictions, the Food Network crew weren’t able to make it out to Kelowna and film the segment.

But chef Rod Butters said it all worked out for the best in the end.

“It’s great for Sunny’s obviously but more importantly, it’s amazing for the Okanagan to be on the national map,” he said.

“I’ve always thought the Okanagan is certainly one of North America’s most exciting culinary destinations.”

Butters is the founder and owner of Sunny’s, as well as a few other Kelowna restaurants including Micro Bar & Bites, RauDZ Regional Table and the Okanagan Table.

All restaurants are managed by his company, RauDZ Creative Concepts, which is celebrating its 20th year in 2021. He said the episode featuring Sunny’s welcomes the company’s second decade perfectly.

“We’re very proud of that. It’s very difficult to do in the restaurant industry but we’ve grown our company and we’ve had amazing chefs work for us.”

The episode will feature two beloved dishes at Sunny’s: Chicks on a Raft and Chicken Meets Waffle.

Butters said Chicks on a Raft is sweet and savoury and was something he began perfecting when he was a teen.

Chef Robyn Sigurdson, the lead chef and manager at Sunny’s, said it’s been a popular menu item since the diner first opened.

“To be honest, I get so many people that look at me like ‘peanut butter with eggs?’ I’m like ‘you’ve got to try it’ and I’ve never had somebody not love it,” she said.

Chicken Meets Waffle is not your standard chicken waffle dish, Sigurdson added.

“It’s an extremely fun dish, a little bit out of the ordinary for chicken and waffle dishes.”

The chicken is brined for 24 hours before it’s covered in in-house batter, fried, and added to waffles and slaw.

Sunny’s episode will air on the Food Network on Feb. 20, at 5 p.m. and then again at 8 p.m.

From Feb. 20 to 21, those who order either Chicks on a Raft or Chicken Meets Waffle will have 50 per cent of those sales donated to the Kelowna BC SPCA.

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Twila Amato
Video journalist, Black Press Okanagan
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Twila Amato

About the Author: Twila Amato

Twila was a radio reporter based in northern Vancouver Island. She won the Jack Webster Student Journalism Award while at BCIT and received a degree in ancient and modern Greek history from McGill University.
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