Local resident brings fresh ideas to a local restaurant
- Details
- Published on Friday, November 27, 2015
Photo by Kira Paterson. Amber Kitson is the new cook and owner of the Green Pepper restaurant.
By Kira Paterson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
On Aug. 1, 2015, Amber Kitson took over the Green Pepper restaurant in Neepawa.
The Green Pepper used to be a pizzeria, but Kitson has expanded the menu to include soups, salads and sandwiches. She also modified the pizza menu to make it her own.
Along with the menu changes, she repainted the building and updated the decor.
She is the cook at the Green Pepper and runs the restaurant herself. Once a week, she has a hired cook come in so she can do the books. Her daughter and stepdaughter are both waitresses and her son works there when he comes home for the holidays. She said that running and working in the restaurant gives her more motivation to get up every day and go to work.
Almost everything Kitson serves is homemade. The dough, sauces, soups and burgers are all made from scratch by her and her staff. She said she wanted to offer another dining option in town that wasn’t fast food or fried chicken.
She said that in December, if she can get sufficient staff, she is planning to be open on Sunday evenings and extend her hours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. She plans to stay open until 9:00 pm from Thursday to Saturday, and open on Sunday from 3:00 to 9:00 pm. She said she also hopes to start offering delivery services, once she figures out a system.
Kitson said she moved to Neepawa about 18 years ago to work at Mr. Ribs. She came from Saskatchewan and said she moved around a lot before she got to Neepawa. She decided to stay in Neepawa because it was the kind of community in which she wanted to raise her children.
Kitson has worked in restaurants since she was 14 years old. A number of years ago, she took over the restaurant in the Hamilton Hotel and made it into the Manawaka Cafe. She ran the cafe for a couple of years before going on to do other things. Kitson said that whenever she leaves the restaurant business, she always ends up coming back to it. It is one of her passions.
Kitson is currently on a one year lease for the restaurant. She said that after a couple years, she hopes to buy the building and maybe think about expanding more after that.
