Tucked away in West Kelowna with a view of the mountains and Okanagan Lake, one couple has opened their home to offer guests an opportunity to spend an afternoon connecting and appreciating life’s pleasures.
Claudia Kargle and Jim Gray have been hosting A Touch of Austria since 2017. The event is built on gatherings that date back to the early 1800s in Vienna when people would get together to enjoy music and social interaction.
A Touch of Austria has been a success with guests returning time after time.
The business was recently named Best Local Business and Best Bakery in the Kelowna Courier’s Readers’ Choice awards.
“It’s the combination of getting people together, connecting, socializing. That’s what people want more and more these days in this crazy world,” said Kargl.
Kargl and Gray are gearing up for the Musical Garden Café this summer at A Touch of Austria.
Their Communities in Bloom award-winning garden offers a covered patio where guests can relax and enjoy watching birds flit from tree to feeder while hearing the fountain burbling in the background.
Kargl, an accomplished musician, has put together a repertoire of music exclusively on nature themes that she will perform outdoors, weather permitting, on a piano under the garden pergola. The music is a blend of familiar contemporary and classical.
Guests can take in the performance while sipping on chilled West Kelowna white wine and nibbling on Austrian chocolates.
Following an intermission, guests move indoors to watch a themed music documentary from Kargl’s extensive DVD collection.
Finally, guests can take in the view of Okanagan Lake and the mountains from the balcony while savouring authentic Viennese desserts created by Kargl.
“The bakery is me,” said Kargl. “There’s nobody else.”
Her favourite dessert is Sacher-Torte, a decadent flourless sponge cake covered with chocolate glaze and filled with rum and apricot jam.
It takes Kargl about six hours to make one Sacher-Torte.
Her ingredient list includes dark Belgian chocolate, goat butter, Black Morgan rum and apricot jam brought in from France.
“The ingredients are costly, but the taste is exquisite,” said Kargl.
Kargl also makes strudel as well as Linzer torte, a traditional Austrian pastry featuring a shortbread made with gluten free flour topped with mixed berry jam from France.
To accompany the desserts, Kargl brings in Austrian coffee imported from the historic Hotel Sacher topped with a dollop of freshly whipped cream. Guests can even add Mozart liqueur from Salzberg.
Many of the ingredients Kargl brings in spend 13 hours on a plane to get to the Okanagan; however, her desserts are also made with love.
Kargl uses authentic Viennese recipes, some a century old, handed down to her from her late
mother. She proudly shows the yellow pages of a tattered cookbook a 100 years old as well as a binder of treasured recipes her mother painstakingly wrote out for her in elegant script.
Kargl said she can tell which pages are the best, because they show the most wear.
When she was young, Kargl would always watch her mother make Sacher Torte and strudel. While working at an international hotel, Kargl compared the recipes and added her creative twist.
The baking is labour intensive, but it makes Kargl happy because she is continuing a legacy.
When she opens her recipe books, she always feels like her mother is next to her.
After enjoying Sacher torte at a Touch of Austria, people can buy a small Sacher Torte to bring home.
For Kargl and Gray, A Touch of Austria is important because it brings people together.
“More than ever, I see that people are buckling up and becoming more recluse,” said Kargl, adding people see the outside world is unwell and feel more comfortable staying at home.
A Touch of Austria brings people face-to-face to do something live, not just buying something online or take out.
“This is the experience we offer.”
Kargl said they are making many new friends through A Taste of Austria.
“It’s really a win-win for everybody,” she said. “When the people come here, they really enjoy and for us, we enjoy meeting people.”
It’s an opportunity to offer the tradition of warm hospitality, for people to get together to relax, chat about music, art and culture, enjoy nature, live music and authentic Viennese treats.
A Touch of Austria offers the Musical Garden Café from 1 to 5 p.m. from Friday to Sunday until mid-October.
For more information or to reserve, go online to atouchofaustria.ca or call 250-768-1404. Guests need to reserve at least 24 hours in advance.