New restaurant brings a taste of the Bahamas to Valemount
By Rachel Fraser
New Valemount residents Chiloone Young and McNeil Bullard want you to have an authentic experience of their native Bahamas when you visit Thrifters on the Bay Café.
“We want you to walk through the door and be teleported to the Islands,” McNeil said. He’s been working in hotels and hospitality in the Bahamas since the age of 16. “We don’t just do service – we do hospitality,” said McNeil “Our goal is to be a good host.”
Thrifters on the Bay will be a full-service restaurant that is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, until late, possibly 12 or 1 am, according to Chiloone, to accommodate truckers coming through in the middle of the night.
The restaurant is slated to open in the former Scooters Pizza location in the Valemount Hotel but is waiting on the resolution of outstanding business in the building that they hope will be wrapped up in time for a soft opening on the 24th of March. Plan B is an alternate location in the former Dasol space on the highway. More information will be provided once plans are solidified.
The Bahamian café will offer a full menu that caters to all dietary needs and restrictions, with options for vegans, gluten-free or fat-free diets.
“We don’t want anyone to feel left out,” Chiloone said.
Chiloone’s daughter was born with a rare intestinal disorder that requires a fat free, low sodium diet. “It caused me to be more creative with cooking and baking.”
Healthy food is a core value for the couple, which they said is reflective of the Bahamian diet.
The pizza sauce will be homemade from scratch. They will also serve a line up of house-made natural drinks – lemonades and natural juices – and introducing creams, a Bahamian milk-based drink with fruit and spices.
“Bahamians are mostly vegan based, and we love seafood,” said McNeil. “Everything we make is authentic.”
One of the main ingredients in a lot of Bahamian dishes is conch, a shellfish Chiloone describes as kind of a sea snail, which they source from the Bahamas and feature on their menu.
Chiloone said her branding concept and the name of the restaurant, Thrifters on the Bay, takes the notion of thrift – defined as the quality of using money and resources carefully and not wastefully – and applies it to the quality and quantity of their dishes at an affordable price point, while the Bay evokes the beautiful beaches of her homeland.
Beyond just food, the couple’s vision includes sharing the culture, introducing a Bahamian musical festival with a street parade called Junkanoo and bringing in live “Rake and Scrape” bands, a popular musical style in the Bahamas, so named for the resourceful use of tools as musical instruments.
Chiloone and McNeil have been in Valemount since June. They had originally prepared to open their restaurant in Calgary, but came to the Valley for work, and fell in love with the place.
The restaurateurs did some taste-testing at three pop-up events they hosted in Valemount in February. They said the events were all very well received, and they’ve been getting feedback from the community that there is a lot of excitement for their opening.
