shops – Page 2 – Sheryl Kirby

Organics, Delivered

Recent chilly nights and the appearance of squash and pumpkins means that the end to farmers market season will soon be upon us. Within the next few weeks, farmers will be finished with this year’s harvest, and we’ll be left to fend for ourselves in the aisles of the supermarket, where Peruvian asparagus and spongy pink tomatoes cause much sadness.

But there are a few companies who have made a business out of sourcing local and organic produce throughout the year, and not only do they do all the legwork of tracking down clean healthy food – they’ll even deliver it!

Note that the information below is based on Internet and telephone research only. Wanigan is the only one of the companies listed that I’ve personally dealt with, and while I was always happy with their service, they don’t deliver to highrise buildings, so I can no longer use them.

For any readers interested in trying the places below, I’d suggest doing your research – they all have different policies on deliveries, payment, substitutions, etc., and while I’ve tried to cover as many obvious questions as possible, everyone has particular needs and circumstances that should be worked out individually.

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A Tour of St. Lawrence Market, Part 2

As noted in Part 1 of our tour of St. Lawrence Market on Monday, the south market has just about everything needed to fill a pantry. But the fruit and vegetable stands, bulk goods and bakeries tend to mostly fill the perimeter and basement of the space. For most visitors to the market the first thing they see when they enter the main space of the upper level is meat. And that’s where we’ll begin part 2 of our tour.

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A Tour of St. Lawrence Market, Part 1

Recently in a Market Basket column, we explored the north section of St. Lawrence Market which hosts the weekly farmers market. But there’s a whole array of tasty stuff in the south building where vendors are set up at permanent kiosks and shops.

Open Tuesdays to Saturdays, the south market building, located at 92 Front Street East at Jarvis, is like the high street in a small town, with a selection of butchers, bakers, cheesemongers, greengrocers and bulk and dried goods stores. Many vendors have been at St. Lawrence since the 70s and 80s, making them a longstanding tradition for shoppers here.

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Orgasmic Organics

Multiple Organics
1545 Dundas Street West
647-435-5340

What are two well-educated young women to do when they find themselves with doctorates, but no where to use them? Why, open an organic food store of course!

Such was the case for Nupur Gogia and Carrianne Leung recently when they discovered that the only way to make use of their formal education was to leave Toronto, something neither of them wanted to do. Gogia was already part of an established family business, running the successful Raani Foods, and Leung wanted to stay close to her family in Toronto’s west end. With no retail background other than Gogia’s experience selling her famous samosas at St. Lawrence Market, the pair leased a storefront in the Dundas West and Dufferin area and opened Multiple Organics just over a month ago.

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Craving Some Valentine’s Chocolates

Craving Chocolates
119A Roncesvalles Avenue
416-538-1212

Valentine’s Day is commonly thought of as the biggest holiday of the year for chocolate sales, but statistics show it actually ranks third or fourth after Easter, Halloween and Christmas. Due to shopping habits related to the day, however, Valentine’s generates more one-week candy sales than any other holiday. Apparently shoppers are better prepared for the other holidays (something about women doing the bulk of the shopping as opposed to men), and Valentine’s Day purchases are more last minute. Which is a shame, because it means an awful lot of people are getting big ugly boxes of sub-par candy, when a little planning could mean a better product.

Tucked away behind a flower shop on Roncesvalles Avenue is exactly the kind of place where people should be buying their Valentine’s chocolates.

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It’s All Good at the General Store

Good Catch General Store
1556 Queen Street West
416-533-4664

The success of any retail business is based on its ability to respond to the surrounding community. Can you give the customer what they want? A business that sees itself as part of the community can take that relationship one step further, as it not only supplies the regional customer base with goods, but gives those customers a central place to meet, shop and be a part of things.

In the olden days, that would have been a local general store. In 2008, it’s also the general store, or at least that’s the case in Parkdale.

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Delight in the Junction

Delight
3040 Dundas Street West
416-760-9995

I shed a little tear the day in 2003 when Citron closed down. The Queen Street restaurant was one of my favourites and I think of it fondly still. A couple of years later, a friend who happened to also be good friends with the folks who had owned the place showed up at my house for dinner bearing a box of chocolates. The gorgeous treats were the work of none other than former Citron pastry chef and co-owner Jennifer Rashleigh. She had created a business called Delight and was making beautiful chocolates and selling them wholesale.

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The Cheese Is Fine, I Walk the Line

Thin Blue Line
93B Roncesvalles Avenue
416-840-6966

The old saying goes that “good things come in small packages”. Nowhere is that more true than the tiny little cheese boutique that opened on Roncesvalles Avenue last fall. Taking up half of a standard storefront and with maybe 100 square feet of space for customers, it’s a tiny little jewel box of carefully chosen items.

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A Bag of Magic Beans

Merchants of Green Coffee
2 Matilda Street
416-741-5369

Coffee. Where would we be without it? It wakes us up, keeps us going and fuels social gatherings. But how many people actually think about where their coffee comes from? Or how fresh it is?

For people who grew up on (and possibly still drink) supermarket coffee, there’s a distinct possibility that they’ve never had a truly fresh cup. That becomes less likely every time a new ethical, fair trade roaster opens up a café in a busy neighbourhood, but there’s still a definite difference in terms of freshness.

A truly fresh coffee is one roasted to perfection, then ground and brewed immediately. Of course, to facilitate this process, it helps to have a source of green coffee beans.

I discovered Merchants of Green Coffee in 2002 and have never looked back. Roasting my own beans has completely changed how I both drink and think about coffee. Continue reading “A Bag of Magic Beans”

Soma – Home to the True Chocoholic

Soma Chocolatemaker
Historic Distillery District,
55 Mill Street, Building 48, unit 102
416-815-7662

It’s a sad fact that many people who deem themselves to be “chocoholics” have never tasted anything made from good quality chocolate. That’s not meant to sound snobby, but I make the statement to illustrate a point. There are “chocoholics” who get their fix by buying a bar at the corner store and then there are those of us who make special trips, across town or around the world, for the truly spectacular stuff. In terms of the folks who create the confections, you can’t beat the devotion of Cynthia Leung and David Castellan of Soma Chocolates who installed an 80-year old Catalan Melangeur (that’s a chocolate grinder to the rest of us) via forklift, and then built the walls of their shop around it.

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