Toronto non-mall retail (Odds & Ends)

[khris]

Victoria could be such a much nicer pedestrian street if they only tried to make it better. It is treated like an alleyway.

 

[Northern Light]

Years late, I know, I finally got around to trying Andrea's Cookies.

I don't have that sweet a tooth and they are a bit out of my way.....

But over the weekend I popped by their Bloor outpost and fetched Buttered Pancake (Maple), White Chocolate Macadamia, and Ferraro Rocher.

Then summarily found a friend who was working downtown, and split them, as I knew 3 of these cookies would be way too much for me.

A review of each, then overall comments:

Review: The consensus favourite. As with each of their cookies, uber-rich, and quite sweet, but well balanced and gives what it promises.

Review: I liked, my friend, who is less keen on nuts in cookies was less enthused but also thought it wasn't bad; for me, it was a bit out of balance with a bit too much white chocolate relative to the nuts, but still quite decent.

Review: Really quite good, the cookie itself has a maple vibe, and then icing atop has a very rich buttery vibe but also mapley.


Overall. Very good quality of Cookies, but at just over $5 a pop for a complete sugar/butter bomb.......not more than once every six months for me. I truly felt like 1/2 a cookie was a serving.

Full Selection of Cookie varieties here: https://andreascookies.com/cookies

 

[torontowest91]

Years late, I know, I finally got around to trying Andrea's Cookies.

I don't have that sweet a tooth and they are a bit out of my way.....

But over the weekend I popped by their Bloor outpost and fetched Buttered Pancake (Maple), White Chocolate Macadamia, and Ferraro Rocher.

Then summarily found a friend who was working downtown, and split them, as I knew 3 of these cookies would be way too much for me.



Overall. Very good quality of Cookies, but at just over $5 a pop for a complete sugar/butter bomb.......not more than once every six months for me. I truly felt like 1/2 a cookie was a serving.

Full Selection of Cookie varieties here: https://andreascookies.com/cookies

Huge fan of her cookies - been enjoying them since she first opened the store on Bloor Street (near High Park).

Also noticed she's opening in Oakville soon!

 

[narduch]

Restoration Hardware has opened an Outlet store in Vaughan, in the old Decathlon location (that was also recently a Spirit Halloween).

Its on Rutherford north of Vaughan Mills Mall

 

[Sauga89]

I'm cross-posting this from the 3650 Eglinton thread, because I think it fits here as well.

There's an interesting report on this property coming to Mississauga city council next week. Basically, this development is a component of a larger retail development, most of which is already complete. The areas that are already completed are dominated by restaurants, which is creating a parking shortage, traffic problems and noise complaints. The city's solution to this is to retroactively cap the number of restaurants allowed in the already completed area, and limit new restaurants in the undeveloped areas.

There are 115 restaurants in the existing development, and the city is proposing to cut the number of restaurants by 15%. Existing businesses will be grandfathered in, but no new restaurants will be allowed to open. Any restaurants that close will not be replaced until restaurant space falls below the cap. Existing restaurants will also be forbidden from expanding their restaurants should a neighbouring unit become available.

Also, retail stores that sell food will be barred from selling any food prepared on site, to prevent them turning into quasi-restaurants.

For the undeveloped areas, new restaurants will be allowed, but they'll be capped at 11% of the lot area.

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The already-built developments operate on a condo model. Each business owns their own unit, and they pay condo fees to a condo board for shared services.

Some of the business owners were initially concerned (See their presentation to the planning committee) because they thought the city was trashing their investment with retroactive conditions. They thought the re-sale value of their units would be hurt and their bank loans might be affected.

The city's position was that since it would only apply to businesses which open after an existing business closes, or to a business which wanted to expand, the existing businesses wouldn't be affected.

At the planning committee meeting, the business owners who came to speak seemed satisfied by the city's assurances that existing businesses wouldn't be affected. My impression from watching the planning committee meeting was that the two sides might still be talking past each other, with the city not understanding the business owners concerns about resale and expansion, and the business owners mistakenly being convinced the restrictions would only apply to the undeveloped area, but maybe that's just me. You can watch the planning committee meeting yourself.

A final vote on the restrictions will take place at the city council meeting on Wednesday, January 14th.

There was also talk at the planning committee of setting up a business improvement association for the Ridgeway area. All the city's consultations to date went through the condo boards.

There are a lot of minority community restaurants in the plaza, so apparently the place becomes quite a communal gathering point during holidays.

(EDIT: Also, it occurs to me that the city should look hard at how to encourage restaurant development in nearby areas. If there were more space for restaurants in the surrounding area, perhaps they wouldn't all be concentrated in the same space.)