Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 08/02) - Chris McCutcheon has taken on a whole lot since he moved up to Yellowknife last August from Welland, Ont. And he says that buying a snowmobile within the first two months of living here shows that he is committed.

McCutcheon began networking shortly after arriving in this Northern city. He's been working in the restaurant industry for more than 18 years and knows how important it is to make contacts. He's been a dishwasher, a cook, a pastry chef and a manager.

He worked at the Explorer for a while but things weren't going the way he had hoped so, again, he started asking around.

That's when he found out about the Pig and Feather. It was only an idea when he got involved but now McCutcheon can proudly say that he's the general manager of three local bars -- Fort Knox, the Industry and the Pig and Feather.

The Pig and Feather is one of the newest additions to Yellowknife's bar scene. It's located on top of Fort Knoxx and is taking the place of many come-and-gone bars from the past. But McCutcheon says this time it will be different.

"I know we have to overcome the enigma that it's a dance club or a night club or a strip club - all these things that it's been in the past. There have been some successful clubs here. There is a lot of potential here and Yellowknife is expanding very rapidly and will continue to over the next five years. I think we opened at the right time," says McCutcheon.

The name for the bar actually came from this enigma. McCutcheon says that everyone kept saying 'Oh yeah, you'll make the go of that place when pigs fly.' And so they decided even that's possible. They called the sportsbar-roadhouse the Pig and Feather and McCutcheon is betting pigs will be flying soon.

"It's tough, you know. It seems that in Yellowknife there's a lot more habits then there is in Ontario. It's a small town so everybody knows everybody. What happens is they just get use to going to one place cause that's where all their friends go and they don't want to step outside of that boundary - that of the close kit group," says McCutcheon.

The Pig and Feather wants to form its own boundary. Once people experience it, McCutcheon says that they'll just want to come back. He riding on the belief that the bar is a sort of roadhouse. McCutcheon says Yellowknife doesn't have a roadhouse so he really doesn't have to worry about too much competition. "There are a lot of good restaurants in town but it seems that people in Yellowknife eat out a lot so there's lots to go around. We're not trying to compete with anybody, we're just offering another option," he says.

McCutcheon is trying to bring something that he thinks is missing in this town. In about five years, he says, Yellowknifers are going to see southern chains like Kelsey's and The Keg wanting to come North. What McCutcheon and his crew are trying to do is get a head start.

"It's just taking longer for people to get accustomed to the fact that there's a new place in town. But every single day we get more and more people in."

The Pig and Feather opened up about a month and a half ago. The Industry should open up by the end of the summer. Including Fort Knoxx, the three bars will each have their own atmosphere. The Pig and Feather is a sports bar while Fort Knox is more of a dance club where the owner plans on installing a glass dance floor. The Industry, currently undergoing renovations, will be a lounge bar for a little bit of an older crowd.

As far as enjoying Yellowknife, McCutcheon says he hasn't had much time. He figures it's a good thing he works over 100 hours a week because it keeps him pretty. He says he didn't even notice the cold winter go by.

"I'm here about a 100 hours a week so I don't really do a lot. But I get out biking and snowmobiling. It's a great city," says McCutcheon. "I've done pretty much every job that can be done in the industry and I love it."

Besides being the brains behind the Pig and Feather, McCutcheon has been toying around with an idea he hopes will soon be realized. He wants to make a cookbook called KD 101 for university students. It would be 101 recipes for Kraft Dinner.

"It would be awesome. I'm a pretty simple person and I like home cooking. I just thought it would be a good idea," he says.

As far as food at the Pig and Feather, there's no KD on the menu despite the fact that McCutcheon came up with it. Favourites include the Philly steak sandwiches, and the club house.

"We don't use processed anything if possible. We make our own sauces, we make our own burgers."

Whether or not the existence of the Pig and Feather has been processed by the locals, McCutcheon expects a steady flow of customers within the next month.