Excitement in remote Manitoba community as 1st restaurant opens

Wasagamack First Nation, a remote community in Manitoba, now has a restaurant thanks to a partnership between chief and council and a retired restaurant owner.

Jeremiah's Korner Kafe is a dine-in restaurant with online ordering available for take-out.

Brett Mason from Wasagamack, about 470 kilometres north of Winnipeg, is a cook at Jeremiah's Korner Kafe and has lived in the community for the majority of his life.

He said he never saw himself being able to work in a restaurant without having to move to the city.

"This is the first time we've had a legit restaurant," he said.

"A lot of people were excited and asking me when it was going to open; it's pretty exciting to have that finally."

Lori Lucas, an Ojibway woman from Ebb and Flow First Nation, is helping set up the restaurant for the next four to six months. During that time she said she will train a restaurant manager and potentially an assistant manager.

Lucas said in terms of convenience for food and a place for people to gather, things are different in Wasagamack than they are in urban settings.

"We're so used to a culture in Winnipeg where we have a restaurant or café where we can go meet up with our friends, have supper, have coffee and enjoy each other's company," she said.

"They don't have that here and to a community that doesn't have that opportunity, it really affects mental health, physical health, being alone all the time. By opening this and having people come in and be able to enjoy each other's company, that's going to bring some big changes."

Lucas said there are plans to have 20 total employees at the restaurant, all of them from local communities.

"The crew I have right now, we're calling them 'The OGs,' they are so eager to learn, they are so so hard working," she said.

"When I do leave, they're going to have an incredible team up there."

The community doesn't have an all-season road to the south or an airport; supplies have to be transported by winter road or ferried from other communities on Island Lake that have airports.