Yellowknife's bar scene ranges from the legendarily rough Gold Range — known locally as the Strange Range — to comfortable lounges in downtown hotels. For a more laid-back evening, the brewery scene has grown: NWT Brewing Company and Woodyard Brewhouse both offer local craft beer and food in approachable settings.
Coffee culture has arrived in Yellowknife in the form of a handful of decent cafes downtown. In summer, these fill up with the surprising mix of people who end up in Canada's northern capital — civil servants, seasonal workers, miners on rotation, and adventurous travelers who got off the highway somewhere and kept going north.