If you see a green flag flying from a purple houseboat in Yellowknife Bay, coffee is likely brewing.
Niki Mckenzie says the former owners of Mario’s Marvellous Movie Emporium — also known as the coffee ship — passed the torch to her in October 2019, after a few training weekends.
The former owners, whom she knows only as Frans and Heather, had started the houseboat cafe as an informal place for friends to gather, drink coffee and eat cinnamon buns about four years ago. The rule was when the green flag goes up, coffee is on.
Mckenzie gave the space some more consistency by keeping regular hours and opening every weekend, and she still rolls up the green flag because she says, it’s fun.
But then COVID-19 hit. She closed for a while to keep everyone safe.
This August, she got approval from the health department to reopen, with some new adjustments.
“Pre-COVID[-19], pre-health department, I was running the coffee ship the way Frans had taught me,” she wrote in a text…
