‘Crazy busy’ for business owners as tourists are back to Tuktoyaktuk

Key takeaways: 

• ‘I opened almost a month back, and it’s been absurd every day.’
• It’s right on the Arctic Ocean and is now the only place in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., where paying guests can sit for a home-cooked dinner.

Grandma’s Kitchen is handled by grandma herself — Joanne Edwards-Steen — and her spouse, John Steen. 

With a guest book to verify it, people from around the globe have come to eat there.

It’s right on the Arctic Ocean and is the best place in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., where paying guests can sit for a home-cooked dinner.

And now that guests are back after the pandemic break, Edwards-Steen is one of some small business owners in the community of approximately 900 who is headed off her feet.

“It’s been crazy active,” she told. “I opened nearly a month back, and it’s been crazy every day.”

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“I cook, clean, and [do] everything for this place, so I earn my bread and fry fish,” states Edwards-Steen. She also serves cooked muktuk.

The eatery has operated seasonally for the previous five years. Meanwhile, her husband vends items out of the gift shop and fills out credentials for those who dip a toe in the Arctic Ocean.

The latest expansion to the business is a separate facility where people can enjoy their meals. Before, it was either take-out or people could consume in the couple’s house.

Martin and Elenor Creplin, visitors from Moncton, N. B., say they’ve always wanted to come to the areas— and a visit to Grandma’s Kitchen was on the to-do list.

“This has been a fantasy of mine to come from Atlantic Canada to the North for numerous years,” stated Martin. “We’re traveling for several months, and one of our first destinations was to get as far north as feasible and dip our feet into the Arctic Ocean.”

Source – CBC News