SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Business has been brisk at Yellowknife's newest coffee house and eatery.

Jeremy Flatt, left, Emma Atkinson and Philip Jefferies stand behind the counter at their new coffee house, The Fat Fox. The new eatery opened for business on June 1. - John McFadden/NNSL photo

Opened June 1 by three British ex-pats, Philip Jefferies, Jeremy Flatt and Emma Atkinson met each other when they were students at the University of Exeter in southwest England.

The trio ended up in Yellowknife after Flatt met a man from Nunavut in a downtown Toronto hostel about seven years ago.

Flatt said the man painted such a vivid and interesting picture of the North that he just had to come and see what it was like for himself and he's been here ever since. He said his two business partners have just essentially followed him here.

All three have been hard at work for the past six months preparing the menu and updating the decor.

The new restaurant has a bright feel to it with vertical rough lumber paneling and strings of small bright lights. It offers what is described as very fresh food with fresh spices. They have vegetarian and gluten-free items on the menu. They have hired nine full and part-time staff.

"We wanted to bring something different to Yellowknife, wanted to provide good coffee, some lovely decent food," said Jefferies. "We couldn't find much in the way of good curry - at least of the East Indian variety. We have Mediterranean food, some Cypriot style dishes - that's what Jeremy, our head chef, wanted to bring to the town."

The coffee side of the business is Jefferies' area of expertise while Atkinson takes care of the baked goods. Both Jefferies and Flatt work full-time at the restaurant while Atkinson has kept her job at Dominion Diamonds.

Jefferies described the vision they were going for with their new space.

"We wanted to make it a cozy atmosphere - somewhere where people could come and hang out, spend a bit of time and not feel like they were being shuffled in and shuffled out," Jefferies said. "We're halfway between a coffee house and a restaurant."

The group is renting the space previously occupied by The Diner, an institution so famous it received mention from two sports broadcasters during an MLB baseball playoff game in spring 2014. Before that, the space has had many other incarnations.

"I know that it used to be a pirogi house and it also used to be a bakery at one point so it's got kind of a rich history," Jefferies said. "We're hoping to get some photos to show what it used to be like. This could be a heritage building."

Depending on the success of the business, Jefferies envisions moving into a newer, more modern building.

Prices are a little on the expensive side by Yellowknife standards, Jefferies admitted. He said however there is a reason for that and they make no apologies.

"We tried coffee from various places and found some really delicious coffee from Edmonton. They fly it up here the day after it's roasted so it's really fresh," Jefferies said.

"It's a company called Transcend Coffee. They have a direct trade model with farmers down in Brazil. They have a nice agreement going ... People seem to be blown away by it."

He added that their current hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 9 a.m. To 7 p.m. on Saturdays. He expects their hours to expand as they grow the business, possibly adding attractions like live music and poetry readings.

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