SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Wildcat Cafe is not the only restaurant in town having difficulties meeting its opening date target after months of renovations.
The Museum Cafe at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre was originally supposed to reopen in 2012, but the date was pushed to April 1. That date has now come and gone 15 months after a Boxing Day chimney fire in 2011 caused severe damage to the restaurant's kitchen.
Barb Cameron, the museum's director, said refurbishing the establishment has taken more time than expected due to the "very technical" nature of the repairs. Cameron said beyond rebuilding the kitchen, most of the work last year required an entire re-engineering of the chimney running from the kitchen to the boiler room by JSL Mechanical. It was only this past winter that reconstruction of the kitchen was begun by Clark Builders.
"I think they are in the final stages of putting in all the equipment that was damaged in the fire, so they have done the structural and painting and tiling work," she said.
"Now they are putting in things like the appliances and new freezers, fridges, and hooking up the stove. The kitchen was essentially gutted."
She said the renovations have cost $520,000 to date.
The museum issued a request for proposals last month with a deadline of today that will see a new company taking over the food and catering services at the cafe when it's ready to resume operations. If all goes as planned, the museum should have a functional eatery again by early June, in time for tourism season.
Based on past sales at the cafe, Cameron said the museum attracts about 5,000 people every year to the cafe. Overall, there is about an average of 35,000 people who visit the facility each year, most of whom come in the summer. With the completion of the Deh Cho Bridge, she is expecting even better numbers this year.
Cameron wasn't hesitant to comment on the difficulties facing other restaurants in the city in recent months, including the Wildcat Cafe and establishments owned by Chef Pierre LePage who shut down Le Frolic and Le Stockpot last month after running into financial difficulties.
"We are just a lunchtime operation, basically, but it would be wonderful if we were aligned with the Wildcat Cafe. We are famous places to eat," said Cameron.
What is certain now is that longtime operator Wally Sheper will no longer be operating the museum cafe. Most of the food preparation will be up to the new contractor, but Cameron said there will be at least some guidelines on how and what "good quality and healthy" food will be served.
"It is really up to the contractor to provide a healthy menu and whatever their flare is going to be," she said. "Certainly traditional foods is a draw for tourists and for local people. They love to have local fish. It is hard, of course, to get some things, like caribou, so buffalo burgers are served."
Cameron said the museum is working on ways to thank the firefighters involved in putting out the Boxing Day fire, but those plans have yet to be unveiled.
