SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Hungry visitors to the Yellowknife Fieldhouse no longer have to bring their own coffee and goodies.

The long-vacant concession stand at the venue now sports a new flavour for Yellowknife: Turkish delights (and not just the sweet treat of the same name, though they have those too).

Reyhan and Mustafa Sarikaya opened the K&M concession stand on Jan. 17, 2011, and just over a month out, they are happy with how things are going.

The concession features a variety of traditional Turkish fare including baklava, Turkish coffee, Turkish delights and borek, a flaky pastry featuring feta cheese and parsley. Those with a less-adventurous tongue can also enjoy western standards of concession stands like French fries, potato chips and Slush Puppies.

"Some people look at the small cup of coffee and think it is like an espresso," says Reyhan. "But Turkish coffee is meant to be enjoyed slowly, so that when you're coffee is done, so is your conversation," she said.

"Reyhan has always enjoyed cooking and I come from a background in hotel management, so we are really enjoying doing this," said Mustafa, who also works as a taxi driver. "We are really thankful to the city for this opportunity," said Reyhan.

The couple moved from Turkey seven years ago and had been wanting to open their own business for two years. They had considered purchasing Canadian Pizza, but decided against it due to the cost of setting up shop downtown. "Since it was in a house downtown, it was just too expensive to do. So we were happy when we saw the opportunity to do something here."

"My husband loves soccer and uses the Fieldhouse a lot, so when we kept seeing the empty space we thought it could be a good opportunity for us," said Reyhan.

The two like to focus on healthy, nutritious foods in their concession, even squeezing their own juice. "It takes a little while to prepare the juice, so we let our customers know that if they order it before they use the Fieldhouse's facilities, we will have it ready for them so they can refuel after exercising," said Reyhan. "It's important to me that after a good workout people are able to eat healthy foods," she added.

The K&M concession is open from 4-10 p.m. during weeknights and from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. during weekends.

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