Yellowknife (Apr 13/05) - Restaurateur Kerrin Patterson has agreed to run the Wildcat Cafe for another two years.

Until last week, the historic restaurant's summer season appeared to be in doubt because no one had expressed any interest in running it.

Kerrin Patterson is back for another summer at the Wildcat Cafe. She hopes the restaurant can be outfitted to run year-round.

Patterson, who ran the Wildcat the last two summers before opening her own restaurant last year, said she assumed her contract would be renewed earlier this year but City Hall never called her.

Faced with the possibility of not having one of Yellowknife's premier tourist hang-outs open for the summer, the city asked her to give it a thought last week.

Patterson signed a two-year contract, Monday.

"The (request for proposals) kind of went out prematurely last time," said Patterson.

She said one of the ideas that came up was the possibility of making the Wildcat a year-round operation.

"There's still a possibility, and it's going to be dealt with very soon, about whether the Wildcat is going to be winterized and run year-round," said Patterson.

She said it would take a lot of work, however. The 68-year-old log building is currently not suitable for winter operations.

Nonetheless, Patterson said she would like to get to work on upgrading the structure after the summer.

"There will have to be some form of public consultation on whether Yellowknife would like to see it run in the winter," said Patterson.

"But I couldn't imagine anyone is going to say no."

Mayor Gord Van Tighem, however, said no one has talked him about winterizing the building.

"It's one thing to run it in the summertime but to heat it in the winter would really eat into anything," said Van Tighem.

(You can put some insulation in) but then what do you do? It won't be the Wildcat any more. It'll become ugly."