Rural Routes
Culinary surprises in rural Saskatchewan
By Rosalind Stefanac
For many travellers, rural Saskatchewan is often glimpsed in passing from the window of a car on the Trans-Canada Highway, or from an airplane 30,000 feet overhead.
But those willing to slow down and venture off route to explore these less populated spaces will be pleasantly surprised — and thoroughly satiated. Amidst the vast stretches of fields, grain elevators and big skies of the prairies, there is a culinary scene emerging that’s breaking rules, defying expectations and turning small towns into dining destinations.
Free Bird, Lumsden (pop. ~1800)
Take JP Vives, a welder turned chef who co-owns local favourite Free Bird in Lumsden, Saskatchewan. Situated in the Qu'Appelle Valley, some 30 km northwest of Regina, the restaurant was a former hardware store that JP redesigned into a funky eatery serving comfort food with a twist.
Along with juicy homemade burgers and flaky fish and chips, some of his bestsellers are a seafood paella with chorizo and a loaded breakfast poutine.
Photo: Rosalind Stefanac
Photo: Rosalind Stefanac
“We also have a jerk chicken karaage, which is like an adult chicken nugget with some good Caribbean spice and Japanese cooking techniques,” JP says.
“We are a meat and potatoes community, but by starting Free Bird and pushing our customers out of their comfort zone bit by bit, I’m showing them what we can do, and they’re loving it.”
Now, along with a loyal local following, Free Bird is attracting diners from out of province too.
JP points to a group from Vancouver passing through recently who noted that his menu was as good as anything they’ve eaten in urban centre hot spots.
“We’re not in the running for a Michelin star by any means, but we’re doing the best we can with the ingredients available to us, and it’s working,” he says.
JP routinely partners with producers in the community for fresh vegetables, bread and spirits.
Photo by Rosalind Stefanac
Photo by Rosalind Stefanac
Trigo Food + Drink, LaFleche (pop. 373)
Two hours (or 207 kms) from Lumsden is another small southern Saskatchewan town gaining big culinary recognition.
Trigo Food + Drink offers a 10-course tasting menu inspired by one particular country. The featured country and menu change only twice a year, but the concept is enticing enough that diners book months in advance — sometimes even before knowing which country will be showcased.
Photo: Rosalind Stefanac
Photo: Rosalind Stefanac
Trigo’s founder, Adam Henwood, says he never set out to be a chef, especially in a town with a population of 373 people.
“I’d always loved cooking — I worked in kitchens during school and I always did food tours when I travelled — but I took the safe route,” he admits.
Adam practiced family law in Calgary for 17 years, until the lifestyle became too taxing.
“Law was supposed to be my career, but I needed an exit strategy,” he said.
That opportunity came in 2017, when a bank-owned property came up for sale in Lafleche, Saskatchewan and Adam jumped at the chance to follow his passion.
He spent six months renovating and opened a diner with a standard menu of burgers and wings that was feeling uninspired.
Then the pandemic hit, which forced him to shut down for a year and rethink everything. “I realized I didn’t just want to run a diner — I wanted to cook the food I’d always dreamed of," he said.
Trigo has provided 11 international tasting menus to date, starting with recipes from Italy and France and most recently Georgia and Ghana. Adam researches his menus obsessively, travelling in winter (he’s heading to Taiwan when the restaurant closes in January) to learn recipes first-hand; then he spends hours adapting dishes for prairie ingredients.
Photo: Trigo Food + Drink
Photo: Trigo Food + Drink
“It’s not about chasing trends, it’s about opening palates,” he says. “Where else in Saskatchewan are you going to get okra soup with banku — a traditional soup from Ghana with fermented cassava dough and cornmeal ball you use to scoop with your hands?”
With no shortage of diners willing to stretch their palates, he says his biggest issue is staffing.
“If anything shuts me down in the future, it will be my struggle to find the right people for what I’m doing here,” he says, noting that few people outside of rural towns want to live in them.
Harvest Eatery & The Blind Boar, Shaunavon (pop. ~1780)
While Adam is still navigating the growing pains of running a restaurant in a rural town, other prairie chefs have already shown that staying power is possible.
Between Grassland National Park and Cypress Hills, in a town called Shaunavon, is yet another example of a small town producing big flavours. Harvest Eatery Chef and Co-Owner Garrett “Rusty” Thienes and his team have been lauded throughout the province — and beyond — for the ability to provide an elevated dining experience that customers can still feel comfortable experiencing in jeans and a t-shirt.
“Some people told us we were dreaming too big for the size of the community we’re in, but we have people driving 100 to 300 kms away to try our food now — and they keep coming back,” Garrett says.
The 45-seat restaurant, which opened in 2013, has an open kitchen concept and is producing fan favourites like Maplewood smoked beef brisket with a maple bourbon demi glaze, and a bevy of perfectly cooked steaks and house-made sides. (You’ll find no premade sauces here either.) There’s a slew of burger options too, made with Speckle Park beef from Saskatchewan and unique toppings such as blue cheese and onion jam.
For the adventurous, the Fat Elvis Burger comes with peanut butter, banana, Saskatoon berry aioli and brie.
Garrett, who started off as dishwasher, spent two decades working within award-winning kitchens in B.C. and Alberta.
“Working with some amazing chefs taught me the importance of cooking from scratch and the difference that makes in taste,” he says, noting that he makes good use of products produced in the prairies, including chickpeas, lentils, wild greens and mushrooms.
“We like to think we give people a reason to come to Shaunavon to eat.”
There’s no question that passionate chefs like Garrett, Adam and JP are reshaping prairie dining. They’re proving that stopping in Saskatchewan’s rural towns for a bite is well worth the detour.
Rosalind Stefanac
Rosalind Stefanac is freelance writer and editor based in Toronto, Ontario, whose work has appeared in national Canadian print and online publications. She has covered everything from backpack weddings and epic hiking adventures to the coolest waterparks for teens. Passionate about storytelling that sparks exploration, she is happiest on the road less travelled—with all the stories waiting to be discovered there.
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