Old Ricco Bambino being transformed into new restaurant and bar

Photo: Rob Gibson

Outside Ricco Bambino on Pandosy St.

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Photo: Rob Gibson Photo: Rob Gibson Photo: Rob Gibson

There's a new restaurant and bar coming to Kelowna this spring.

The Ricco Room will replace Ricco Bambino on Pandosy Street. The wine bar closed its doors in the fall of 2022 and was eventually sold in October for $870,000.

The new owner wants to remain anonymous but former Ricco Bambino manager Taylorr Gramlich is staying on as manager and partner of the new venture.

"Our goal with The Ricco Room is to create a space that makes you forget where you are, visually transporting our guests to a modern tropical oasis," Gramlich says.

The new bar is undergoing a facelift but Gramlich says they won't be going too far away from the old decor. One thing that won't be in the new location is the wine amphora. The three large concrete vats used to ferment the wine on location were taken out of the building this week to make more room.

"We're taking them out, we had those when we were considered an urban winery. We exclusively made our wine in concrete eggs. They're beautiful but very heavy," says Gramlich.

Each concrete amphora weighs approximately 8,000 pounds and getting them in and out of the building was no easy task.

"They're just taking up some expensive real estate on our floor so we should have room for another 24 seats."

The move was so big it stopped traffic on Pandosy Street while renovation crews from Wolverine Industries Commercial Contracting and a local heavy moving company blocked off the section of Pandosy between Lawrence and Leon Avenues.

The new Ricco Room is expected to be open by the summer of 2023, but Gramlich is hoping everything will be ready by the May Long weekend.

"That's a moving target but we're hopeful," he says.

Gramlich adds the new restaurant bar will serve, "bespoke cocktails, a selection of local natural wines paired with a quality and concise food menu (and will) provide a space for the cool kids to escape to."