The Yeti Café, located on 14 Eby St. N., Kitchener, is known as one of KW’s best kept local secrets and has been a favourite in the area since its opening in 2012. Victoria Kent, owner of the cafe, used to work full-time in the kitchen, but has spent more of her time over the last few years focusing on other projects related to the business.
Once the doors opened, the business became infamous for its popular and iconically-named dishes, including the Sasquatch and the Cowgirl. With renovations and more residential development in the area, the Yeti Café has been through quite a few changes this past year.
Now with more growth in the area, Kent and her team decided 2021 was the right year to move forward with their renovations. Although renovations are ongoing, the café had a soft opening on Sept. 24.
“There’s so much development right around our location, there’s so many buildings going up and more density finally coming to that area, which we really need and we’ve been waiting for it for years,” Kent said. “It’s so great to see it finally happening, and that’s why we had the confidence to grow.”
The business has added more bathrooms to the space and a heated patio will be installed later. They have also acquired a liquor license and will be adding alcoholic drinks to their menu.
One of the biggest and most unique changes to the space has to be the Yeti Café’s collaboration with KWFamous, a venture that sells a collection of KW-inspired merchandise.
The Smallest Little Store in KW has a home in the closet at the Yeti where customers can now purchase local merchandise, including t-shirts and mugs, right in the café. They even have their own Instagram page一@smallestlittlestoreinkw.
“We started having a collection of Kitchener-Waterloo merchandise that we sold at the Yeti and I started realizing like there’s no other place that really sells that amount of Kitchener-Waterloo merchandise,” Kent said.
“We have this […] stairway that goes nowhere, and we used to just keep toys there for kids, then we decided to turn it into a little merch closet, and then we had this idea to call it the Smallest Little Store in Kitchener.”
The Yeti Café is now open for dine-in and take-out and will stay open on Friday’s and Saturday’s from 7 P.M. ’til late. Follow them on Instagram @theyeticafe.
Kaitlyn Severin
Student Journalist of the Year - JHM award winner, Kaitlyn has worked previously as The Cord’s senior news editor. She’s also published articles for VICE and Shameless.