Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 20/01) - Bustling summertime cafe, Abe Miller Centre, has enough funding, this year, to pay wait staff.

Corrine Lafferty and Jan Hyde at the Abe Miller Cafe. - Jennifer McPhee/NNSL photo

For many of the seven intellectually disabled employees, it's their first real job. They assist the cook, take food orders and clean up after the restaurant shuts down at 2 p.m.

"Our staff is very enthusiastic," said program manager Peter O'Deiscoll. "They are usually 20 minutes early for their shift.

"This is a fun place to work and that's contagious," he added.

It's also a pleasant, inexpensive place to lunch outdoors. There are new green picnic tables this year, fashioned out of lumber from the Wildcat Cafe's rooftop. And the cook, Barb Halushka, makes everything from scratch right down to the hot dog and hamburger rolls.

Aggie Brockman of the Council for Disabled Persons was lunching at the cafe last Friday afternoon.

"It's a great idea to have more interaction with the people who work here," she said. "But I'd come here anyway because the food's great and it's outside."

Waitress Janet Bearard recommends the spanakopita -- seasoned spinach with feta cheese baked in layers of phylo pastry.

Is she enjoying her summer job?

"Sometimes I do, yeah," she says earnestly."But I want more tips."

Don't we all.