08/30/2022
It is with great sadness that we announce the closing of Highway Restaurant and Shivers Lounge on August 27, 2022. What began as a dream in the summer of 2019, grew into an incredible opportunity for thousands of guests, both local and tourists, to dine in the town of Inuvik. We are incredibly humbled that so many embraced our restaurant and that we were able to remain open as long as we have.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting effect on our business beginning with mandatory closures (March 2020) and capacity restrictions (July 2021). This past year persistent recruiting challenges in the area have been a significant barrier to expanding our service offerings and have prevented us from fully re-opening to our pre-pandemic hours.
Despite this difficult decision, we want to thank all of our wonderful guests for supporting us over these past years. We recognize and are grateful for your support and patience while we have worked diligently to stay open this summer. We thank you for dining with us as we navigated restrictions, mandates, staff shortages and the introduction of online takeout. Our food quality and service are very important to us and we are unwilling to provide a quality that is less than the standard we set for ourselves, our team and our customers. Unfortunately, we are unable to achieve this standard without the appropriate number of staff (Dishwashers, servers, cashiers, bartenders, and cooks).
To our reliable, dedicated employees - we are grateful for your commitment. We thank you for your professionalism during challenging times, we thank those of you who showed up to work, and for putting your best foot forward. We could not have done it without you. To our employees that are pursuing post-secondary education this fall, we wish you good luck with your studies and future endeavours.
To our local suppliers, we are grateful for the partnerships we have fostered over the past number of years. You have worked with us to provide exceptional service. You have provided groceries, alcohol, office supplies, maintenance work, utilities, and kitchen equipment. We recognize that the closure of the Highway Restaurant and Shivers Lounge will also impact your businesses. We would like to thank the McKenzie Delta Hotel Group for their patience and willingness to work with us as we adjusted our operations.
While we will no longer be operating the restaurant and lounge at the Mackenzie Hotel, we will continue operating the Highway Express at the Inuvik Mike Zubko Airport. Over the coming weeks, we will begin scaling up our operations further, expanding our hours, and re-introduce ourselves to the community in this new role, serving airline travellers – and the community – from a new and exciting location. We welcome you to join us for breakfast and lunch from Monday to Saturday.
We will be updating our social media accounts to the Highway Express over the coming days so that we can stay in touch.
Sincerely,
The Senior Management Team
P.C. Consulting and Recruiting LTD.
