Andrea Markey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 03/05) - Yellowknife entrepreneur Dan Ireland has a lot on his plate.

After a series of delays, the White Fox Bar and Grill's kitchen is now open for service. Located in the old Checkers Building across from the Swap Shop on Franklin Avenue, the restaurant sits atop Foxy's Night Club and shares its 70 person seating capacity with the White Fox bar.

Jullien Wakelin carves Alberta beef steaks at the White Fox Bar and Grill while his kitchen staff, Andrew Bishop and Mike Best, prepare some appetizers. The restaurant opened on Friday night for dinner and yesterday for lunch.

Ireland welcomed his first patrons on Friday night for dinner and Tuesday afternoon for lunch. Ireland is working to create a restaurant atmosphere.

The supper-hour music is contemporary with an emphasis on acoustic guitar. Ireland is acquiring art to decorate the walls this month.

The kitchen is open six days a week from 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. After 10 p.m. a small appetizer menu is available for the bar crowd.

"The dance club and bar are doing really well, but it is the lunch and dinner menus I am really excited about," said Ireland, who owns the multifaceted business with his brother, Nathan. "We wanted something different than just pub-style food."

That's why the brothers hired chef Jullien Wakelin.

Wakelin apprenticed under the Team Captain for Culinary Team Canada - an elite squad that travels around the world competing in various global cook-offs - and has worked at resorts and hotel restaurants for almost 20 years.

He is a former executive chef for the Explorer Hotel and the Frobisher Inn in Iqaluit, where he worked before taking the helm at the White Fox.

Wakelin is a hands-on chef. He makes all his own sauces, dips and soup from scratch and cuts the steaks as they are ordered.

"By making everything my-self I have more control over the finished product and can take it in any direction," he said.

His do-it-yourself approach also helps keep prices down.

"We want to make a profit through volume, rather than increasing the price for customers," he said.

All but one item on the lunch menu, a steak sandwich for $12.99, are under $10.

As for the most expensive item on the dinner menu -- it's all up to the diner's appetite.

The "chef's cut" is available to those who think the Alberta Grade AAA steaks featured on the menu are a bit too small.

"I will take that customer into the back, let him or her choose the size of the steak they want, cut it and weigh it in front of them so they know exactly how much they are getting," Wakelin said. "And then I cook it exactly how they want it."

While the menu features a wide array of items, a keg-style steakhouse is the goal, said Ireland.

If the early reaction of diners is any indication, there just might be an appetite for that in Yellowknife.

"One of the first customers last night ordered a steak and when he was finished he ordered another one to take home with him for later," he said. "That is about the best compliment one could get."