After months of renovations, a new local eatery is days away from opening its doors.
Situated in the previous Buffalo Brew Pub location, Trattoria Raccolto aims to bring the authentic taste of Italy to the city of Swift Current.
Two-time provincial champion chef Garrett 'Rusty' Thienes (owner of Shaunavon's Harvest Eatery) and his wife Kristy, along with Joel and Savannah Schultz (owners of Automotive Unlimited in Swift Current) and Dan and Amber McPhee (owners of Southern Pressure Testers in Gull Lake) have teamed up to bring this unique dining experience.
"We have received a ton of support from Swift Current," he said. "The ownership group that has invested with me and supported us in this has eaten at Harvest for a number of years and we have done a ton of work with them. So it felt like the right time, the right place and the right location. Everything kind of lined up."
In terms of bringing an Italian eatery to Swift Current, Garrett believes they felt as though there was an obvious gap in the market for what they were doing which is fresh Italian. They want to be as focused on authenticity as possible with recipes and research.
Savannah admits that owning a restaurant is very different from their other business. Schultz adds that they are excited to bring a different cuisine and says the thing they love about Harvest is that it is more than just dining it's an experience when you go there and they are hoping to bring that to Raccolto.
In addition, Schultz says they hope to try new things that she is unsure if Swift Current has a lot of such as wine nights, whiskey/scotch tasting nights as well as perhaps doing some parking lot parties in the summer.
As the establishment approaches its opening date on July 23, Garrett adds that the whole team has dreamt up something amazing and he hopes everyone will be proud of what they have created and want to come out and celebrate all their milestones with them.
The restaurant's hours will be from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and open Tuesdays through Saturdays.