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| Daphne Scarff managing the Harrison Country Crossroads Hotel and Cafe |
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| Virginia Scarff working in hotel with mother and brother |
| Photo credits Mack McColl
Daphne Scarff is putting her cooking and managing skills to work at a new enterprise on the road to Harrison Hot Springs, B.C., and Daphne has daughter Virginia and son Chris as well as other partners preparing and delivering meals and serving customers at the Harrison Country Crossroads Cafe (in the hotel of the same name). You can't miss it on Highway 7 (the Lougheed Highway) near Agassiz. The hotel contains other facilities. Virginia will be running a liquor store, Chris will work in the bar and around the hotel, and other staff will fill positions required to run a 40 room hotel. Daphne was born and raised in Kincolith, Nisga'a, one of four townsites in the Nisga'a Nation of Northern B.C., but she raised her kids in Vancouver by and large. Even so the kids are closely familiar with Nisga'a and Kincolith. Their dad, on the other hand, is Tlingit, the First Nation found east and north of the Nisga'a Nation. Virginia said, "Dad survived residential school in Carcross, Yukon," a ten year internment that raises bitter memories, and he tried to put it all behind by travelling across Canada and the USA when he left the school at age 15, she explained. Virginia was injured in a pedestrian accident in her teenage years and it left her with lower-back paraplegia, which means, of course, she moves around on wheels. Daphne's son Chris has cooking skills learned from his highly qualified and experienced mother and does morning shifts in the kitchen. The family invested in the business of the restuarant and the hotel owners have renovated rooms and re-equipped facilities for another run at the business. Daphne was educated in cooking in the 1980s." She said, "I went to school at Vancouver Vocational and returned to the north to work in camps and at Potlatch ceremonies, cooking for over 500 three days at a time." She never had to deal with residential school, and said her father refused to allow the authorities to steal her away to residential school. "He had foresight and kept me at the cannery in Prince Rupert," during the years when dozens of canneries operated around the inlets and bays of the area. "I was hidden away," and managed to escape a devastating experience. Garel Scarff, her husband, was not so fortunate up in Whitehorse, Yukon. "It scarred him for life. It remains hard for him to deal with it. For us later in Kincolith it was different," although she was enrolled in day-school. "We used to get strapped in the hallway for speaking Nisga'a." Parents would go the school to inquire about these drubbings but they got no response. She married Garel Scarff in 1985 in a Christian ceremony after 20 years living common-law. "We have 4o years together." The Harrison Country Crossroads Hotel and Restaurant received provincial health department inspection and approval and business is underway. "We have had a few people say how much they like the food. We serve Canadian cuisine," and a menu that revolves around specials like Chinese, Mexican, and other special nights like lasagna night, roast of lamb, fish and chips, and other tastes. Hours of operation are 11 A.M. to 11 P.M.. They have a pizza oven to serve customers of the bar. Daphne loves to cook and roast beef, turkey, chicken, snacks, burgers and fries, and vegetarian dishes are the main fare. "We have First Nation nights, with salmon and other dishes." Children eat for half price. The restaurant seats 45. Phone (604) 796-3911 to reach the Harrison Country Crossroads at Agassiz, B.C., on the road to Harrison Hot Springs and Harrison Lake. |
