Category: Okanagan

It’s not uncommon for us to  pop over to Penticton for a meal and Bad Tattoo Brewing is one of our favourite restaurants there for a number of reasons, most importantly that the food and drinks are delicious.

In the warmer months, there is a large outdoor seating area that doubles the capacity of the restaurant. Regardless of the season, this place tends to be very busy and I strongly advise that you make reservations.

Here are some important points of note:

• Parking is not plentiful, though we usually manage to find street parking close by that you may or may not have to pay for, depending on what day and the time of day you visit.
• If you haven’t made reservations and find yourself having to wait for a table there are some benches to sit on just outside the restaurant.
• The bathrooms are wheelchair accessible. That said, getting to them would be a challenge in terms of the space available. The restaurant is always very busy and cramped.
• As a large person, navigating around people and tables is sometimes very difficult here, depending on how tables have been configured on any given evening but also just in general. If I was using a wheelchair or other mobility device such as a walker I would most certainly call ahead and let the staff know that when reserving a table. I’m sure they would arrange things ahead of time to make adequate space. Otherwise, it might be a real struggle.
• After we were seated, some tables surrounding us were moved to accommodate different party sizes and it meant that I had to disturb a couple of people in order to be able to leave the table. To be clear, a thin woman had to get up to use the washroom and even she had to have her friend move their table over and hang on to their pizza so that it didn’t get knocked off.
• The chairs feel sturdy, do not have arms, and can be moved around (as can the tables) to accommodate larger or smaller people.
• This place can get loud because it’s small and people are generally drinking, eating, and having a good time. It’s difficult to have a conversation without shouting, which can be a problem even if your hearing if good but is especially difficult if you have hearing challenges. We find this to be less of an issue in the summer because eating in the outside area usually means there is less confined background noise.
• The outside area is covered so you get to enjoy the heat and the sun if you sit on the periphery but also there is shade.
• We have always found the staff to be friendly and the service to be fast and efficient.

Their menu has some staple items that are constant, but many of their pizzas change with the seasons and  availability of local ingredients. All of their pizzas are cooked in a large wood-fired oven and the crusts are thin, crispy,  and tasty. I’ll provide a link to their site at the end of the post and their full menu can be viewed there.

In the above picture you can see their  soft pretzels with honey mustard dip, made with locally sourced honey. The drinks include a grapefruit radler and a non-alcoholic root beer that Bad Tattoo brews on-site. Note that this is the first restaurant that I’ve been to that has made the switch from plastic straws to a paper ones. I hope more local restaurants will do the same!

Bad Tattoo brews a number of their own beverages and you can take tours of the small brewery and try tasting flights or full-sized glasses of their offerings on tap.

Pizzas come in two sizes and if you order the larger size you can ask for each half to have different toppings. The right half of this pizza is their Donair Pizza (a seasonal one that we haven’t seen before) and the left half is their Black & Blue (a staple that I can never resist and if you can make it last that long it is amazing for breakfast the following day).

From the menu description, the Donair Pizza includes house-made lamb and pork sausage, heirloom tomatoes, sweet and tangy donair sauce, fresh sliced cucumber and mint, on a base of green barbanzo pesto sauce. Both my husband and I really enjoyed this one, and I’m normally not a big fan of sausage meats but this was gooood. It had lots of flavour and wasn’t overly fatty, as I often find sausages to be. I liked the contrast of the fresh, crunchy cucumbers and mint, and the donair sauce was creamy and mildly sweet but there wasn’t so much of it that it was cloying. I would definitely order this again if I found it on the menu at a subsequent visit.

The Black and Blue is made with Penticton’s Upper Bench blue cheese, blackberry compote, roasted local apples, and toasted malt. It’s always the perfect combination of sweet, salty, tangy, toasty, and smokey. Order one for dessert, or take one home for tomorrow’s breakfast. I promise that this is a flavour combination worth trying.

Even though this isn’t the most accessible of restaurants, the delicious food and drinks keep us coming back, though almost always in the summer time when we are able to enjoy more space and conversational volumes in the outdoor section.

As promised, here is a link to their website. It does get updated frequently to reflect their seasonal menu offerings.

http://www.badtattoobrewing.com/

 

 

 

I’d never been to the South Okanagan Events Centre (SOEC) in Penticton before the other night and I was somewhat dreading the venue itself based on my experience at Prospera Place in Kelowna last year. I won’t go into full details about Prospera Place right now except to say that the seating there was even uncomfortable for my thin teenager.

Photo credit: Naomi Kleinschmidt

We were at SOEC to see Cirque Du Soleil’s new ice show, Crystal. I’m a huge fan of CdS and this is the 5th of their different shows that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing. Like all of their shows, this one was packed with fun and talent.

SOEC, like most events centres, is meant to be accessible to people with a variety of mobility needs and the following are some points of note:

• We were charged $10 to use the parking lot at the centre, though I’m not sure there would be a charge for all events. Even with paid parking, spots were scarce and you might find yourself having to walk a distance from your spot to an entrance. For people who aren’t able to walk more than a couple of minutes, if you have the option of being dropped off at the front door that might be your best option.
• Bathrooms are wheelchair accessible.
• Options for navigating different levels of the building include stairs, ramps, and elevators.
• There are designated spots where people in wheelchairs can  comfortably view the show.
• Seating charts are available online and seat selection means that you can choose something appropriate for your needs. For example, there were 4 stairs to get to our section but other options ranged from 0 stairs to about 2 dozen.
• The seats are hard plastic and sturdy, and while they do have arms they are higher up so that even people with very large hips and thigh will not find them being pinched.
• If you are taller than about 5’10” you may find the amount of leg room to be uncomfortable.
• There is an onsite restaurant but we didn’t eat there and the concession stand is easily accessible to all types of mobility devices.
• In our walk through the building on two floors and outside and around the venue I did not see anywhere to sit down (aside from the seats in the show area, of course), like benches or other waiting areas.

The SOEC could still make some improvements in terms of meeting the needs of people with varying degrees of mobility but I wouldn’t hesitate to attend an event there in the future.

 

Most people are aware that grocery pick-up and delivery exists, but many people have never tried it. I’ve seen complaints online about how this is the death of face-to-face interaction or how this will result in people losing their jobs but I’m going to address both of those things.

First, either option (delivery or pick-up) requires face-to-face interaction, either with someone who comes to your door (delivery) or with the person who brings your order out to load into your vehicle (pick-up).  I’ve never used the delivery option for two reasons, those being that there is a fee involved and one of my dogs gets very agitated and upset when strangers come to the door, and I don’t wish to put him in situations that make him anxious any more than is necessary.  I do, however, use the pick-up option once a week and have very pleasant interactions with the store employees who help me load the groceries into my vehicle. They will load them without your help but when I’m physically able to assist I prefer to do so.

I am someone who would rather do one large shop for the week and then only make a trip to the store for 1 or 2 items during the week if we’ve run out of something, because grocery shopping is a task that is physically difficult for me much of the time. When you are physically able you probably don’t think about the amount of standing, walking, twisting, bending, reaching, lifting, etc. involved in grocery shopping but if you have chronic inflammation and pain you notice every movement involved in the process.

Every week I place one large order and reserve a time slot to pick it up. I pull into a designated spot during that time window, follow the directions on the sign in the spot (as you can see from the above picture I call the number and give the person who answers my name), and someone brings out my groceries within a few minutes. The cost of the groceries is added to my credit card via the online account I have created with Save-On Foods. Just like with the in-store shopping experience, you still earn points and you can redeem your points in the online checkout or save them.

I tend to be chatty with the people who bring the groceries to my vehicle so I asked one of the young women what the experience was like from her perspective. She told me she loves it because her job is to go around the store and shop for other people much of the day, and that she enjoys that even more than some of the other parts of her job. If the service did not exist, she’d be doing those “other parts of her job” all the time. This is a win-win service, as far as I’m concerned. Someone has to shop for you and the items still have to be scanned through the till so no one is losing their job over this service.

A couple of additional things that may be of interest are as follows:

• When I’ve told friends that I use this service, one of the most common responses I get is something along the lines of “I would be concerned about my produce. I want to pick the best!” and I have to tell you that I’ve been really happy with the produce that has been selected for us, to the point that there isn’t anything I would change. I’m not getting bruised apples, or mushy grapes, or anything like that.
• If you like something a specific way (for example, we prefer our bananas on the green side) every single cart item in the online checkout has a space for you to leave a note for the person who will be shopping for you. So far, every note I’ve left has been honoured.
• You can check a box to indicate where you wish to allow substitutions. I always check the box to allow it, but if there is a specific item that I would only want substituted for another specific item then I can make an individual note on that item. Also, substitutions have always worked out in my favour. By that I mean, sometimes I’ll buy a Western Family item because it is cheaper or I’ll buy an item on sale, but they might have run out of that item. Each time, they’ve replaced it with a nearly identical item from another brand that is more expensive or not on sale, but they’ll do a price adjust so that I get it at the price of the item that was no longer in stock. For example, this week my order included some Western Family pretzels that were on sale, but they had run out so they gave me name brand pretzels at the same price.
• The amount charged to your credit card will reflect the prices of the items on the day that you pick them up, rather than on the day that you place the order. Keep that in mind, since it means items you thought you were getting at the sale price might have gone up on the day you pick them up. I’m not sure if the week runs that same at all stores but at my usual location the prices run from Friday to Thursday. So, if I place my online order on Thursday and apples are on sale that day but I pick up my order the next day, on Friday, then I’m going to be charged the regular price rather than the sale price. For that reason, I just never schedule my grocery pick-ups on Friday.

From what I can tell when I do go into the stores, there is no discernible difference in the number of customers in the store but having this option available means so much to people who use it, whether just occasionally due to convenience or because mobility makes shopping a nearly unbearable chore. No one is suggesting that everyone should or must shop this way, but having choices means that more people can have their needs met and I see that as a very good thing.

 

 

 

About 4 months ago, Torrid came to Kelowna and you can find them at Orchard Park Mall near the food court, across from Bath & Body Works! The mall is made to be accessible for people with a variety of mobility needs and for further details please read my post about Extreme Pita, located in the same mall.

Before Torrid arrived in Kelowna, I had previously shopped at Torrid while on vacation in Las Vegas in 2016 and through their online store. Unfortunately, the Canadian dollar is not particularly strong against the US dollar right now and ordering online means incurring the additional cost of shipping and duty, not to mention the hassles that come with returning clothes if they don’t fit you properly. So, I am thrilled to have a local store!

I LOVE Torrid because they seem to understand that fat women* want to have choices about styles, fabrics, patterns (or solids), and that carrying a variety of cuts means that fat women of all shapes can find something that fits them in a flattering and comfortable way (that’s right, I just used flattering AND comfortable to describe the same clothing)!

*I want to add two things here. Some people may choose to use a different word or words to describe their size or their body and it is certainly the right of all people to self-identify. I mean no offense when I use the word “fat” but, rather, I don’t feel the need to attach any negative connotations to it, either. It’s simply a descriptor like when I say that I have curly hair. Also, when it comes to using the term “woman/women” in regards to the clothing sold at Torrid, that is how they describe their clothing on their website and their clothes tend to be cut in ways that make room for large breasts, round hips, etc. That said, no matter what your sex or your gender identity, if you want to shop at Torrid then I hope you have so much fun doing just that and that you rock your new clothes!

This post isn’t about the clothes, specifically, though I will tell you that all of the clothes I have purchased from Torrid over the years have lasted extremely well.  To this day they are my favourite pieces in my wardrobe and I own a lot of clothes. The colours remain vibrant, the materials have held up, and nothing has shrunk or stretched out (note: I throw everything in the washer and dryer–I don’t buy clothes that require special treatment).

What I want to say about Torrid is that their change rooms make me so happy! They are magical, idyllic bubbles where, upon entry, I feel as though the world is adequately adapted to my size and needs.

I need to apologize for whatever I managed to muck up while taking the above picture. I assure you, the walls are not curved like you’ve just stumbled into the Mad Hatter’s tea party or a trippy fun house.

But do you see that? It’s a lovely, wide, sturdy, cushioned place to sit and there is one in every change room. Despite my warped picture that is not doing justice to the space, I assure you that the changing rooms are wider than most. There is no feeling of confinement or being cramped. There is, instead, the feeling that this space was made with you in mind and that your patronage is appreciated.

Now look up, way up! Every room has its own fan blowing deliciously cool air. One of the things I hate about trying on clothes is that I’m often left feeling hot and sweaty, especially when I’m having upper body mobility problems, which is frequent enough for me. It makes me physically uncomfortable and also a little embarrassed to emerge from the change rooms looking like a literal hot mess.

In addition to those lovely touches there is a big comfy couch in the change room hallway where friends can sit while they are waiting, or where you can just take a little break if you need to sit down. There is also a bench seat in the main part of the store that can be used while trying on shoes or waiting for others who are shopping. I take notice when stores offer a place to sit since I sometimes find myself in need of exactly that with little warning.

Additionally, I always find the staff to be friendly, helpful (providing information about sales, offering to bring different sizes to the changing rooms, etc.), and often modelling Torrid’s clothing on their own bodies. That said, they don’t hover and they’re not pushy, and I appreciate being allowed the time and space to do things at my own pace.

Having said that, I need to say one more thing before I wrap up this post. I am a  white woman and I recognize that being so affords me the privilege of rarely being followed, watched, or hovered over in stores by the staff or security (Torrid does not have its own dedicated security people but the mall itself does). I can’t say with 100% certainty that others wouldn’t be watched, simply because I can only share my own experience with you. I would like to think that the women I’ve encountered working in the store wouldn’t profile by race, age, or anything else, but I realize that the world is not an ideal place. I hope we get there.

Peace, love, and happy clothes wearing to you all! <3

I have never eaten at an Extreme Pita before now but based on this experience I would eat there again, with one or possibly two alterations to my meal.

Here are some things of note:

• Orchard Park Mall is designed to be accessible for people with a variety of mobility needs. If you enter through the apple entrance (each entrance is named after a fruit, the apple entrance faces Harvey Ave.), you can borrow a motorized mobility scooter. I haven’t utilized this service yet but will definitely do so when I need to.
• The mall is all one level, except for one small section that offers the option of a short staircase or a wide ramp. Elevators and escalators are not necessary in this mall.
• The food court, where Extreme Pita is located, offers a variety of seating. There are padded bench seats with tables that can be moved out from the benches if you are a larger person and require more room, there are sturdy metal chairs without arms (no pinched hips!) that can be moved as needed to make room for wheelchairs, walkers, and larger people, and there are some taller chairs at counters for those who prefer that.
• It can get a little crowded sometimes, and that makes it more difficult to navigate between chairs and around people when it is particularly busy, but even at those times I’ve always been able to find an adequate place to sit.
• The bathrooms are wheelchair accessible.
• There is a lot of parking at the mall but it can sometimes be difficult to get a space close to an entrance if you don’t have a disability tag/sticker for  your vehicle (I do not have one at this time, but that might be something I ask to have, based on need, in the future).

For lunch, I ordered the “regular” (it’s the smaller of the two available sizes) Sriracha Balsamic Chicken Salad with a small “Strawberries on the Peach” Smoothie and water. The smoothie was a blend of strawberries, peaches, and apple and cranberry juice. It was sweet, and light, and refreshing. The Salad was “Spring Mix Greens”, chicken breast, avocado, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, red onion, and that was drizzled with a lemon balsamic dressing and sriracha sauce.

This is something you will almost never hear me say but I think I might have prefered this salad without the bacon. Also, while it’s not apparent in this picture, at least 75% of the “Spring Mix Greens” is raw kale and I admit I’m not a big fan of raw kale. I enjoy roasted kale, grilled kale, and sauteed kale but in its raw state I find it overly fibrous and not especially enjoyable. So, I picked around most of the kale.

Still, I would order this again and ask them to go easy on the kale and maybe just skip the bacon, depending on my mood that day. The amount of sriracha they gave was perfect for me in that it gave it a little kick but wasn’t over powering. The lemon balsamic dressing was really zingy and I loved it!