Photo: File Photo: Colley Communications
The iconic Naramata Inn has once again been given new life, with two seasoned hospitality partners stepping into to revive the historic spot.
Christopher Royal, who owns Pizzeria Tratto Napoletana and Chulo, and Michael Ziff, who recently was a part of the management team at the Restaurant at Poplar Grove and Vancouver’s multi-award winning St. Lawrence restaurant, announced that they are opening a seasonal French bistro in the Naramata Inn.
The restaurant will open on May long weekend and run to Thanksgiving.
The inn, which operated as both a restaurant and a hotel out of a historic building in the village, had announced that it was closing its doors indefinitely in January.
The operators at the time shared in a social media post that due to continued challenging conditions for tourism and hospitality in the Okanagan, they had to close.
The news was met with heartbreak in the community, as the Inn, which was constructed 112 years ago, had long been a special place that was once again a bright spot.
The Inn had reopened in 2020 after a team of four of B.C.’s hospitality experts – Ned Bell, Kate Colley, Paul Hollands and Maria Wiesner – made renovations, hired culinary teams and helped bring new customers to the village.
In January of 2023, the operations of the Inn where handed over to Columbia Hospitality. Then they announced closure to two years laters.
Ziff said he had woken up one morning and wondered what was happening with the inn.
“I wasn’t sure if it was even available, so I contacted the owners, and they said it’s open to ideas,” he added.
He turned to Royal as a partner, since they’ve known each other for years and asked him to run it with him.
“He responded first with an expletive, but then he said, very, very enthusiastically, yes,” Ziff said with a laugh. “We’ve always kind of thought we’d do something together one day.”
The idea for the bistro came from Ziff’s French roots, being from Quebec, and having spent most of his career in French restaurants.
“It suits the auberge that it is, you know, a countryside, historic, quaint and charming inn that has an approachable French menu,” Ziff said.
Royal said the idea and the philosophy behind his restaurants, is that the restaurants are for the people who live here.
“We’ve always built for locals. Tourists will come. And the philosophy behind Tratto and Chulo as well, and the philosophy behind this is that we’re here to open the gates and give the inn back to locals,” he added.
“People have a great fond memories at the inn and I think that we want to sort of meet that nostalgia and exceed it.”
Leading the menu will be Kitchen Manager Steve Ramey, who is currently the chef for both Chulo and Tratto. His experience before coming to the Okanagan was as sous chef at Vancouver’s Hawksworth Restaurant and as executive chef at Christine’s On Blackcomb in Whistler is what makes the partner’s excited to see his creativity flourish.
The pair is also looking to do events that use the lawn up front of the inn and add life to the village.
“It might be a glass of rose in the afternoon with a game of croquet or just a place to sit on the lawn and enjoy some good music,” Ziff added.
The restaurant will be open for five days a week, Thursday to Monday, from noon to 8 p.m.
“The menu will be available all day. So if somebody wants to show up at 4 p.m. and just have a tartare and a glass of wine on the veranda, after being at Manitou Beach, perfect. Or they want to come in for a nice dinner with guests that are visiting town,” Ziff said.
While some locals have taken to social media complaining that they couldn’t get gift cards refunded after the Inn closed, the pair said they are going to honour them completely at the restaurant.
“If they were purchased from current ownership, which means the last few years to 2020, then we are honouring them,” Ziff added.
Royal added that they are currently in the works of negotiating access to the inn’s rooms, but the plan is to open them from June 19 until Thanksgiving.
The duo said that they’re excited for the work that is to come, while honouring what the past operators have done to bring rich life to the Inn.
“Ned Bell did some wonderful things here at the beginning. So you know how much emotional attachment the staff has,” Ziff said, also giving props to Chefs Stacy Johnston and Minette Lotz, who moved on from the Inn in 2023 to become the executive chef and chef de cuisine at The Restaurant at Poplar Grove.
“We really want to build on not only the history of the building, but the legacy that all those people created that space over the last five years.”
While the inn itself with retain the same name, the bistro restaurant is yet to be named. More announcements will be coming soon.