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    NNSL Photo/Graphic

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    L'Heritage to move uptown

    Guy Quenneville
    Northern News Services
    Published Wednesday, July 23, 2008

    SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - If Pierre LePage has twenty cups of coffee a day, as he claims he does, there's a good reason for it.

    Fresh off his catering contract for the Arctic Winter Games, the owner of Le Frolic, L'Heritage, Le Stock Pot and Chef Pierre's Catering and Rental Service quickly began plans to relocate L'Heritage uptown and to open an organic market beneath it. It's a project that comes with a hefty $1.5 million price tag.

    NNSL Photo/Graphic

    Pierre LePage, owner of Le Stock Pot, L'Heritage, Le Frolic and Chef Pierre's Catering & Rental Services, stands inside his recently expanded kitchen on 51 Avenue, built to accommodate his catering contract for the 2008 Arctic Winter Games. To make more use of the kitchen, LePage plans to open a bigger L'Heritage uptown, as well as an organic market beneath the restaurant. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

    L'Heritage will move to the upper left mezzanine of Extra Foods' former location on Range Lake Road, while Nico's Market, named after LePage's step-granddaughter, will take up a large chunk - some 7,200 square feet in all - of the building.

    The restaurant and market are scheduled to open in 2009.

    The announcement comes a week after another downtown business, Bank of Montreal, announced its plans to move in front of the old Extra Foods building in time for next summer.

    L'Heritage plans to rebrand the restaurant as L'Heritage Mediterranean Restaurant and offer dishes from southern France as well as Italy and Spain.

    LePage will reduce the amount of French dishes served at L'Heritage.

    "People are afraid of French restaurants, because people associate them with cream and butter," he said. "It's not the case, but that's what people think."

    As for the market, it will sell all of the cooking supplies and equipment currently available at Le Stock Pot, but also offer new products like plates and dishes, allowing Le Stock Pot to serve primarily as a deli, with 25 new seating tables to be installed inside.

    The market will also exclusively offer frozen meals, like lasagna and meat pies, prepared in Yellowknife under the Chef Pierre label, as well as all the sauces used in LePage's restaurants.

    But the market's main focus will be on fresh, organic produce.

    "Yellowknife needs a good little high-end grocery store," said LePage.

    L'Heritage and Nico's will be two of a dozen businesses moving into the building.

    Ray Decorby, owner of Polar Developments, said he wasn't at liberty to say what other stores are eyeing the space, but confirmed that there are some empty slots still available.

    "It's an exciting project," said Decorby of the building's revival.

    With L'Heritage moving from 49 Street, the Le Frolic will expand to the top floor.

    "It's going to be Le Frolic, only quieter," said LePage, adding it will mean an extra 58 seats when the transformation is complete. "Often people don't like the live music and it gets very loud. We also turn away a lot of people because it's so small. So instead of turning them away, we'll offer them a little quieter space.

    "But we'll still play the blues upstairs."

    With the expansions comes more staff. Currently, all of LePage's businesses - plus the Wildcat Cafe, for which LePage is completing his two-year contract with the city at the end of this summer - employ 72 people, 20 of them part-time workers.

    When L'Heritage reopens, that number will grow to 100, most of them full time, he said.

    This October, he plans to run a 16-week training course out of his catering service kitchen on 51 Avenue in partnership with the NWT Mine Training Society. The course will be aimed at 10 aboriginal women from all over the territory.

    "They'll learn how to be cooks for camps at the red-seal level," said Lepage.