Last week a controversial article from the Toronto Star was brought to the attention of many local twitter users. The article was about this journalist’s experience at Yellowknife’s famous Old Town Bistro, Bullocks Bistro. The writer went on about how the service wasn’t that greats, the food wasn’t all that good and how the bill at the end of the night was atrocious. She closed the article by saying the sign going into the bistro should be taken seriously: “Hot Beer, Lousy Food, Bad Service: Welcome. Have a Nice Day.”
This article kind of bent me the wrong way. Obviously, I want to defend our own and tell this writer they are a complete wacko and don’t understand our northern ways, but maybe that would be just adding fuel to the fire. Maybe she’s right, maybe she has been the only one with a backbone to say something. I want to direct you for a second to another local blogger. This local blogger at the time (last summer) was rather knew to town and had a fresh perspective of the place. Well she went to Bullocks to try the place and went home questioning it. She published a blog post about how she was purely surprised at the service and the soggy fries, among other things.
When she published that post about her experience at Bullocks another local blogger (Most of us are friends) had some suggestions about how to dine at Bullocks and even offered to go with her. So they went to Bullocks, expect this time blogger 1 was in the hands a blogger 2, a life long Yellowknifer. Needless to say blogger 1 had a much better time and once again wrote about her experience, this time being a good one.
So lets look at what we have here. Two different people go to Bullocks who know little of the place and town. They both leave with the same experience, somewhat lousy. One goes back with an “experienced” Yellowknifer and has a wonderful time. I guess what I see here is that you need to know what you’re doing at Bullocks to have a good experience. Is this true Yellowknife? I don’t want to think so but…
I have been to Bullocks a couple times over the years, so before you jump down my throat keep that in mind, and quite honestly never found it all that bad, granted I’m a very relaxed customer at restaurants. The place has a real authentic “old town” feel to it, which I much enjoy and I think most others do as well.
That being said, what have your experiences at Bullocks Bistro been like? What would you change or keep the same? Do you think this Toronto Columnist is off her rocker? What advice would you give to a first time goer?
I’m definitely not trying to cut Bullocks down by any means, just trying to figure out where this article in the Toronto Star came from. Maybe she did just have a fluke of a bad time. What I do fear though is if we Yellowknifers have a different perspective on the bistro, than a visitor. Tourism is a big part of our economy and I would hate for an article, like The Star’s one, to be the beginning of the end for our beloved bistro’s reputation for having some of the best fish and chips in Canada.
Whether you go to Church once a week or once a year, there at many Christmas Eve services to choose from. So bundle up with the gang, or family and enjoy an evening of Christmas Spirit. When I refer to tonight, I am referring to the evening of December 24, 2009.
Yellowknife Untied Church: 5403-50 Ave – Northern United Place – Tonight 7pm Christmas Eve Family Service, 10pm Communion.
Holy Trinity Anglican Church: 4909-52nd Street – Tonight, 6pm Family Service of Holy Communion, 11pm Candlelight service, December 25, 10:30am Service of Holy Communion.
Yellowknife Church of Christ: 516 Range Lake Road – Tonight, 6:30pm “unStable”
Holy Family Lutheran Church: 5403-50 Ave – Northern United Place – tonight, 6:30pm “Christmas Eve Candlelight Family Service”
Blessed Kateri Church: Dettah – tonight, 11pm Christmas Eve Mass, December 25, 11am Christmas Day Service.
Salvation Army Church: 4925-45 St – tonight, 7pm Christmas Even Candlelight Celebration.
Yellowknife Vineyard Church: Discovery Inn Centre – tonight, 7pm Christmas Eve Family Service.
Glad Tidings Fellowship: 5013-49 st – tonight, 7:30pm Christmas Eve Service.
Yellowknife Christian and Missionary Alliance: 4lm west of Airport on Hwy 3 – tonight, 6:30pm Christmas Eve service.
Calvary Community Church: 5502-50 St – tonight, 7pm Christmas Carol Service.
St. Patrick’s Church: St. Patrick’s High School Gym – tonight, 7pm & Midnight, Children’s Family Mass, Midnight Mass. December 25, 11am Christmas Morning Mass
This morning I sent out a message saying that Javaroma WiFi was back. At the time I had no idea how truthful that was so I wanted to check for myself.
Upon arriving at Javaroma just after lunch I was greeted by the manager, who I knew. I asked him if the rumors were true, was WiFi really back. Sure enough he said with a smile, it was. My next question was the one I cared about more, price. Months ago when WiFi was first taken out I suggested that they charge for it to discourage people from abusing the service, later I changed my outlook. The proper way to do it would be to continue offering the service for free but with limitations. Such as no downloading.
Well that is exactly what Javaroma has now done. Now, I unfortunately didn’t stay long enough to test it out, but was told that there would be no downloading only browsing online. Which is fine by me, what ever keeps the costs down while making customers happy.
So Yellowknifers who enjoy getting out of the office or house to do some relaxing internet browsing you are once again able to.
Are you going to take advantage of the free WiFi? Well if you do, I’ll see you there!
The 911, or lack of 911 in the NWT is back in the headlines. As well I touch on some of those issues that have yet to find solution, even after many years of discussion.
Election Results. Of course I talked about those.
I also discussed some new features that will be coming to YkOnline, that I am very excited about.
Let everyone know your thoughts below. See ya next week.
UPDATE: Bell has announced the launch date of its new network and the release of the iPhone. Find out when HERE.
Earlier in the day Bell and Telus released a statement proclaiming they will be bringing on Apple’s iPhone. Currently Rogers is the only service provider in Canada that has the iPhone and is not available in Yellowknife. The iPhone is also the phone that most people want. It beats out Blackberry, Plam and all Windows Mobile phone on the market.
What else does this mean for Yellowknife. Well after feeling like we have been left in the dust, Yellowknife will finally have 3G or HSPA (which is just as fast or faster) service.
Northwestel has put in it first order for 1000 iPhone but is not sure of when they will arrive or the pricing yet. Bell has yet to announce the pricing of the phone.
I will also be updating this post with more information as it becomes available. To read more about Bell and the iPhone read this Globe and Mail article.
If you for some reason didn’t notice, this morning cell phone service went down. In this CBC article a NorthwesTel spokesperson said a fiber line owned by Bell was cut just outside of Dawson Creek, BC (which ironically is where I am at the moment). A crew was sent to fix the line but there was no estimate of a time of completion.
About a month ago I came across this great site. It is called Gigpark, which is made up of two words. Gig, which comes from how you might explain a job you have (The band is playing a gig Friday night) and Park, which is a common place for people to chat about where they received great service.
So by this point you may have a decent idea of what the site is about. Like the title states it is basically, word of mouth online. Gigpark as described on their site is a way to discover the great local handyman, accountant, mechanic (and anyone else) your friends use. The site is essentially made up of two parts. The first would be someone recommending the great service they received and the second would be someone looking for great service.
The point of this post is to try and encourage more people from Yellowknife to start using this service, which is free and Canadian made, because once we all start using this service it will be easier to find great service in this town of our. It is easy to do, so if you have something good to say about a local business, and I know you do, head over to Gigpark and let everyone know. Make sure to add me as a friend as well and check out all the recommendations for Yellowknife
Last week a controversial article from the Toronto Star was brought to the attention of many local twitter users. The article was about this journalist’s experience at Yellowknife’s famous Old Town Bistro, Bullocks Bistro. The writer went on about how the service wasn’t that greats, the food wasn’t all that good and how the bill at the end of the night was atrocious. She closed the article by saying the sign going into the bistro should be taken seriously: “Hot Beer, Lousy Food, Bad Service: Welcome. Have a Nice Day.”
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