A local restaurant is branching out into the big city.

The people over at Nightjar Diner Co. have recently opened up a new enterprise in the province's capital, Regina.

This new endeavour, named Oxpecker at Pile O' Bones, is located fairly close to Mosaic Stadium. As the name indicates, it's housed within the Pile O' Bones Brewery. The floor space used to be the brewery taproom, but now houses tables, seats, and a selection of arcade machines.

Interior view of the Oxpecker

For Shaun Hanna, co-owner of both Nightjar Diner Co. and Oxpecker at Pile O' Bones, this new expansion has been exciting to build a menu around that incorporates the best of both the brewery and his own dining options.

"It's a bit of a mixed bag," shared Hanna. "We definitely carried over some of our fan favourites. We're doing versions of items that we may have carried at one point in the past that our guests seem to really like. We've also looked at the menu and thought about how can we work beer, for example, into it."

Hanna shared that a couple of returning dishes will be the steamed buns, as well as chicken and waffles. For the newer side of the table, he and his co-workers have come up with a sort of beer and cheddar soup utilizing the Pile O' Bones Breweries red ale. 

"It's really delicious," Hanna teased. "This red ale and cheddar is almost like a chowder."

Oxpecker menu

The name stems from what looks to be a trend for Hanna and his fellow co-owner, Derrick Sandercock.  Like the Nightjar, the Oxpecker is a kind of bird. Notably, the Oxpecker tends to live in and around large herd animals such as bison. What with the logo of the Pile O' Bones Brewery being a bison, it seemed only fitting.

Folks looking to find Oxpecker at the Pile O' Bones the next time they are in Regina can do so by heading to 1808 Cameron Street. Doors have been open for a week now, with no hitch or stumble in sight.

Oxpecker signage

"It's been great," said Hanna. "Lots of good positive positive feedback. The more arrows that we can point for people coming out to Swift Current to try out what wonderful things that Swift Current has to offer, the better."