Yellowknife (Mar 15/06) - Take one chef, a new menu and blend in a new direction - that's what Our Place Family Dining Room is hoping will be a recipe for success.

With this concoction simmering for just two months, the results have thus far been tremendous, said Kitty Li, co-owner of the restaurant for the last eight years.

William Troy, the new chef de cuisine at Our Place Family Dining Room, stirs the pot as he makes a tasty sauce for the restaurant's ever-increasing number of noon-time diners. - David Ryan/NNSL photo

Li and her business partner Carlos Gonzalez have hired chef de cuisine William Troy, who has previously cooked in fine kitchens across the country.

The increase in noon-hour business is in part thanks to the new lunch menu Troy whipped up that blends some uniquely Northern dishes, like bison burgers, with more traditional fare, such as rotisserie-roasted chicken sandwich.

"We want to have high-end food that's not overpriced for people who want to get in and get out during lunch" he said.

The lunch menu bites in with appetizers starting at $4.95 and entrees between $10-$15. The change in the menu has been keeping server Crystal Garrison on her toes.

"It's much busier, there's a lot of people I haven't seen before," she said.

She and the other lunch server have seen the number of tables increase to 15 since the changes where made.

"There are a lot more happy comments and happy customers," said Garrison.

Our Place also hopes to have a new dinner menu ready for the spring if everything goes according to plan, said Troy. He wants to bring more seafood to the table in Yellowknife and said diners need to have more options when they go out around the city.

"Everybody is chasing the same clientele, but I think nice, fresh seafood would stick with people," he said. "We'd like to have some sort of fish festival where we would invite people down to have some tasters."