The Wildcat Cafe is a popular summer restaurant in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada located in what was then the central business district of the city.[1][2] It is a vintage log cabin structure and represents the mining camp style of early Yellowknife. The structure is a City of Yellowknife Heritage Building, designated in 1992. First opened in 1937 by owners Willie Wylie and Smokey Stout, it is said to be the oldest restaurant in Yellowknife.[3] Subsequent owners were Carl and Dorothy Jensen and Mah Gow, Yellowknife's first recorded Chinese resident.[2] The cafe closed in 1951[3] when business dropped off considerably, likely due to the expansion of businesses in the new sections of town. The building was saved from demolition in the late 1950s when a small group of Yellowknifers fought to have it protected as a heritage property.[2] The cabin was mostly used as a store house from the 1950s to the 1970s. It was renovated in the mid 1970s and reopened as a functional restaurant in 1979.[2] The Old Stope Association, a non-profit heritage society, has been responsible for its operation since the 1970s and today it is managed by the Wildcat Cafe Advisory Committee.[4][2]
In 1992, the cabin was declared a heritage site as an important old building in Yellowknife and the city took ownership.[2] It is one of Yellowknife's most popular tourist attractions. In 2011, the city of Yellowknife decided to completely renovate the log building, which had settled far into the ground and was leaning dangerously in several directions at once. The dis-assembly process, including cataloguing and numbering the pieces, started on May 11, 2011 and was completed on June 4.[5]
The Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec, exhibits a replica of the cabin.[2]