Baked Café and Bakery, in downtown Whitehorse, is at odds with the rugged, isolated wilderness that surrounds it. The Café is not a place that you’d image to find in the ‘far north’. To the contrary it is surprisingly indicative of the modern trend of Whitehorse, the capitol of the Yukon. Gone are the old days of ragged, rough establishments and enter the new wave of trendy, sophisticated shops and stores. You could transplant Baked Café and Bakery onto Young’s street in Toronto, rue Sainte-Catherine in Montreal or Water Street in Vancouver and it would be a fit right in to the cosmopolitan style of those cities.
Baked Café is a trendy cafe full of hipsters, granolas, and urban professionals -
a tightly-packed sea of thick-rimmed glasses, Macbook Pros (free wifi), and dreadlocks. It has a great selection of snacks for all diets (wheat-free, etc), great main meals, delicious coffee and fresh juices. It’s casual, comfortable environment is often crowded and buzzing with energy, often hosting art exhibits and song nights. And it always offers friendly, attentive service and at affordable prices.
Another surprising feature of Baked Café and Bakery is the ethnicity of the owner and some of the staff – 
Japanese! The GCAT crew was surprised to find so many Japanese working there but Mitsue Ozeki, the kitchen manager, said we shouldn’t be surprised at all. She told us that Whitehorse was full of foreigners who have come to the north and fallen in love with the land, the culture and the people. Mitsue has been in Whitehorse for ten years and has seen more and more foreigners move to the north and live happily ever after.
After some cake and coffee we had to move on but we told Mitsue that she shouldn’t be surprised if she sees one of our crew moving here sometime as well – that’s how impressed we were with our first impression of Whitehorse! (and we were correct as Chris later decided to stay in the Yukon and become a trapper!)
Next holiday plan on hitting the ‘Land of the Midnight Sun’ and don’t forget to stop by Baked Café and Bakery while in Whitehorse. Great coffee, comfortable couches and Japanese waitresses – just another day in Whitehorse!
