The Pynelogs Café is in the historic 100-year-old Pynelogs building located at Kinsmen Beach near downtown Invermere. You can relax on their lovely covered patio with its incredible views of Lake Windermere and the mountains or, you can sit inside and soak up the art gallery. The gallery has a new show featuring local artists every two weeks throughout the summer season.
The unbeatable view and great atmosphere is paired with pretty yummy fresh food. We’ve been here several times sampling salads, quiche, flatbreads, and it’s been consistently good. On this day, it was better than good.
Oddly enough, in a summer of sunshine and heat, the rain chased us in from the patio. The dining room filled up quickly with ladies having lunch and a few young families. The room had a nice vibe. It sounded happy in there. Great food, excellent service, groovy background music and surrounded by art. Really, what’s not to like?
There are new specials offered daily, featuring innovative seasonal cuisine, but after a quick look at the menu we chose the famous Scotty Burger and the Club Panini. We watched a young boy as he was presented with his Scotty Burger and we were sure looking forward to getting ours! It looked so good and it was so thick, we weren’t sure how the little guy was going to bite into it let alone finish it.
While waiting for our lunch, we sipped on a glass of wine. It felt almost like being on vacation. It’s interesting to note that several spots in the valley offer just one red and one white wine by the glass. Although the Hester Creek cab/merlot was good, a bit more choice would be nice. The menu has a good selection of beer and a limited but good selection of wine, although by the bottle.
Despite being busy, our lunch arrived quickly. The Scotty Burger, their original stuffed burger, is an 8 oz., 100% Alberta beef burger with the toppings stuffed right inside the meat. Served with Kettle Chips and coleslaw on a soft, toasty bun, it looked juicy and tasty. It was that and filling too. As we were biting into the last bits, we checked on the progress of the boy with his burger and he had done it. He ate the whole thing! We were totally impressed.
The Club Panini is made with roasted chicken (the real stuff), bacon, tomato, cheddar cheese and pesto mayo. A side of soup or house salad comes with it. We chose the house salad. The sandwich was delicious… fresh, full of flavour, crispy, juicy. The crust of the toasted bread was covered in melted cheese…oh yeah! Any thoughts of banishing carbs went right out the window. The salad was really good too, with mixed greens, plump grape tomatoes, pine nuts, cucumber, and fresh dill. There seems to be an awful lot of tasteless, tiny cubes of tomato showing up on limp lettuce presented as a side salad these days, so this salad was particularly nice.
Sadly, we were too stuffed for pie but the coffee was great. Afterwards, we wandered around the gallery taking in the amazing paintings, sculptures and photography on display. What a lot of talent and what a wonderful experience we had. It’s a great place to satisfy all your senses.
The Pynelogs Cafe is located in Pynelogs Cultural Centre at 1720 4th Avenue, Kinsmen Beach in Invermere. Call them at 250-342-1445.
The Valley Echo’s team of mystery diners are constantly seeking out new restaurants and eateries to review.