SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The 52 Street Javaroma is in good hands, says former owner Adrian Bell.

Bell has sold the coffee hot spot to partners Rami Kassem and Fadil Memedi, former driver and owner of City Cab, respectively. The sale took effect Sept. 1.

From left, Adrian Bell, former owner of the Javaroma location on 52 Street, stands with the new owners of the shop, Rami Kassem and Fadil Memedi, who took over the business last week. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

"As we've gotten to know each other, it's been obvious to me that ... Fadil and Rami ... are going to enhance this location, they're going to advance the Javaroma brand, and that's very important to me. I can trust them to build the business," said Bell.

Before coming to Yellowknife, Memedi worked at a series of restaurants - "mostly Italian restaurants and some Tex-Mex. I did it all. I owned a few of them myself," he said.

Kassem has management experience, as well, having overseen a plastic manufacturing operation in Montreal.

The two friends long clamoured to work together, and when they heard Bell was trying to sell the shop, they jumped at the opportunity.

"We liked this place. This is part of the culture of Yellowknife," said Kassem.

With that in mind, the partners won't do much to change the shop, aside from adding new food items like quiche to the menu and putting some personal touches to the interior. The name, and the drink menu, will stay the same.

"We're just hoping to slowly improve a couple of things in terms of maybe fixing up the place in the near future and having maybe a little better look," said Memedi.

In a year, the pair hope to open a third venue in Old Town that will double as a showcase for the roaster Bell purchased in 1999.

"It was always Adrian's dream to do something like that," said Memedi.

"It's a really cool machine and it's designed to be in a boutique setting where customers can see it and enjoy the experience of coffee roasting - smell the smells, see the sights," said Bell. "It actually used be to right in the corner ... but it took up too much space so we had to move it."

As a minority shareholder in the downtown Javaroma, Yousry Abdelmegid, owner of Main Street Donair & Falafel, will conduct maintenance on the shop.

Abdelmegid purchased the Centre Square Mall Javaroma stand from Bell in mid-July and is running it under the name Main Street Cafe, although no new sign has been put up yet.

Like Memedi and Kassem, his prime directive is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

"We're not going to do drastic changes," said Abdelmegid. "We're going to have more of what people like. And we're also open to ideas if people have suggestions."