Fast meets casual at this new downtown burger spot

BNA Brewing Co. in Kelowna is jubilantly marking not only its eight-year anniversary but also the grand unveiling of its latest culinary endeavor, BNA Burger, situated within the enticing confines of its Tasting Room.

At the core of this venture is a smash burger, proudly crafted using premium Canadian beef, adorned with an array of toppings, and crowned with a secret sauce.

Alongside the burgers, the new spot will offer other menu options like chicken, salads, and soft-serve cones.

“They’re an old-fashioned smash burger. And what we wanted to do is try to find something that people weren't really offering downtown. There are no big burger chains, there’s not even a more of a boutique burger place downtown,” owner Kyle Nixon told Kelowna10. “There's a lot of great restaurants that have burgers. We just felt like there's a lot of places doing a lot of different things, and we just felt like there's a little niche here that we could do something.”

The inspiration behind the concept, Nixon said, is rooted in nostalgic memories of burger chains from his upbringing.

From there, the team developed a ‘fast casual’ concept with a limited, but well executed menu.

BNA Burger replaces BoxcAr Kitchen, which had called the Tasting Room since the fall of 2019. The restaurant left in January 2023.

After it’s departure, BNA had to find a way to fill the void.

“We gave it a few months where we were playing around with this, and it was always something that the team and I had been thinking of was doing our version of a McDonald’s type place,” he said. “It just seemed like the right time. They were ready to move on. And we gave us four or five months to kind of really dial in our concept.”

Looking towards the future, Nixon expressed his gratitude for the unwavering support received from the community since BNA Brewing Co.'s inception.

“My wife, team and I had an idea of what we thought it could be. And the public came out and supported us so much more than we could have ever imagined,” he said. “Some of these things hit, some of them don't. But the hope is, is just that we can create one really great place that Kelowna is proud of.”