My modern history tour with Gene Domagala through the eastern and northern part of the Beach introduced me to the Kingston Road area and the historic significance that it played in the development of East Toronto. Gene also introduced me to Carolyn Pitre who helps to run the Kingston Road enterprise Community. through an interview with Carolyn I discovered that the Kingston Road area in the middle of Main street and Victoria Park Avenue is an interesting and diverse shopping district on its own right, so this sunny Saturday morning I set out to eye some of the merchants and products on offer along Kingston Road.
The first place I visited is housed in a beautifully renovated old movie theatre; beautiful photograph windows light up the tasteful interior of Memories Now and Then, a high-end consignment store owned by Nadine Steinberg. Nadine welcomed me to her store and explained that her store features adopt pre-owned furniture, rugs, china, lamps as well as vintage jewelry. She added that all the pieces that she carries are upscale and hand-picked.
Kingston
Nadine has many years of contact in the china, crystal and silver retail business. Her mum and sister have been in the old enterprise for many years, so Nadine's love for high-quality items with a history was kindled a long time ago. She likes that the pieces she chooses are in good condition and well taken care of, and her store is an occasion for her customers to see interesting home décor items that have stood the test of time. Memories Now and Then is very spacious, and tasteful displays are set up on three levels: the basement, the main floor and a second storey gallery that was especially created for Nadine by her landlord when she first bought the store. Nadine adds that her customers come in from areas such as Rosedale, Forest Hill and North York, and many of them have been referred to her by word of mouth.
I continued my gallivant along Kingston Road and dropped in at the Pegasus community Thrift Store, run by volunteers for the Pegasus community scheme for Adults with special Needs. Marie Perrotta, the founder and menagerial director of this non-profit organization, was in the store together with a volunteer. I had already had the occasion to meet Marie on old occasions and was deeply impressed by her club and her dedication to adults with special needs. During the week adults with disabilities run the store, assisted by staff and volunteers. The store's merchandise includes items produced by the program participants, along with hand-made greeting cards, soup and cookie mixes and bookmarks.
On the weekend a variety of volunteers come out from the community to help. Naomi Drayton told me that she regularly volunteers for Pegasus. Every Saturday she comes in for a few hours. She mentioned that she has a young daughter, and her volunteering at Pegasus gives her a great occasion to get out of the house and socialize with habitancy from the community. In addition, she does it for a good cause since all the sales earnings generated in the thrift store goes towards the Pegasus community Project.
Naomi used to live in a small town covering of Toronto and just moved to the Beach about a year ago. She loves the area and enjoys all the thrift shops along Kingston Road and does most of her shopping nearby here. Naomi added that she is going to be living in this area for a long time and she wants her daughter to grow up in the Beach.
Another someone in the store piped up and said "I just opened a store a few doors down. Why don't you come visit me too?" So I decided to pop in at Flip a few steps west of the Pegasus community Thrift Store. The owner Fiona Bramzell and her five year old daughter Paige greeted me warmly. Fiona, originally from England, opened her store last November. Flip is a consignment store that features used clothing for children from newborns to twelve year olds. In addition, it also carries some clothing items for adults.
For now Fiona's store is open three days a week while Fiona still holds down someone else part-time job at Savoury Grounds Coffee Company, a beloved coffee shop in the area. But she is planning to open six days a week in the near future. In addition, she is currently applying to become a copy editor for Harlequin Publishing and added that she has written several non-fiction articles for dissimilar websites. She also regularly recaps reality Tv shows for a website called http://www.realityshack.com. Fiona assuredly has an interesting mix of talents and hopes to be able to soon dedicate more time to her retail store in the near future.
My next visit was to the Farmer's Daughter in the Pantry, a specialty store that offers farm-fresh hand premium produce, pre-made meals and desserts, as well as freshly baked organic breads loaves and baked goods. Specialty products also contain home-made jams, jellies, salsas, chutneys, fresh dips and spreads. Michelle Shabatura verily Is "the farmer's daughter" - she grew up on a fruit and vegetable farm in Southwestern Ontario, and with the help of her house she still operates a 4-acre pesticide free field on the farm in a small town called Waterford.
Her store has been open for approximately two years: the doors opened on May 13, 2005, and since then Farmer's Daughter has become immensely beloved in the neighbourhood. Michelle mentioned that her customers' needs dictate the goods line that she carries. Many local residents, along with busy professionals and retirees, come to her store to purchase ready foods, and she is in the process of developing an whole weekly meal program that will contain ready meals for every day of the week that can be picked up from the store. The weekly meal program will contain a option of fresh fruits as well.
She added that her home-made pies are also very popular, and her Chicken Pot Pie and the Steak and Guinness Pie have become huge hits with her customers. Most of her food items are home-produced, and her pesticide free field supplies her with many ingredients, along with unusual items such as cherry-bomb peppers and edameme beans, an item I had never heard of. Michelle explained that these are a type of Japanese soybean that provides the top number of vegetable protein, and she uses it frequently in her pre-made meals.
Michelle's website features a weekly theme-based newsletter; her next feature will be about everything that is "Hot and Sour, Sweet and Spicy". The website also features interesting events, a Store Features page and recipes in a section called "Entertaining Ideas". someone else inventive store idea is the "Recipe In A Bag" which includes an assortment of fresh cut, mixed vegetables that comes with a recipe and an herb blend that makes establishment super easy.
The story behind Farmer's Daughter is also very interesting: Michelle used to work in the corporate world in software development, and ran a consumer and client services department. She has verily harnessed her corporate skills to turn herself into a creative entrepreneur. In addition to that Michelle adds that many seniors drop by on a daily basis "to see what's cooking", and have found that the Farmer's Daughter has become a nice conference place in the community.
Trinity Gallery I and Trinity Gallery Ii are run by the sister-sister team of Gayle Buffett and Marie Schweishelm. The sisters opened the first Trinity Gallery in 1995, and today they sell a broad range of high potential giftware, jewelry, accessories, and china. Trinity Gallery Ii offers a option of furniture, lamps, rugs and other home décor items.
Gayle added that Trinity Gallery I offers an eclectic mixture of gifts that are priced in any place from to 0 and adds that their jewelry items have become very beloved gifts for someone special. Customers for Trinity Gallery Ii come from as far away as Sudbury, North Bay and Michigan to shop for specialty home décor.
Just a few steps further west on Kingston Road I saw a store sign entitled "Oh What Fun", and I conception that would be a store I should not miss. I walked in, introduced myself, and started talking with the owner, Jane Bawtenheimer. Jane informed me that her store has been open for about one and a half years now, and Oh What Fun is all about unique items, gifts, bath and body products, décor and interesting ideas. She added that many habitancy come into her store because she has so many unique humorous signs displayed throughout the space. The "Confessions of a Shop Girl" section on her website features some candid and interesting insights about Jane's new life as a shopkeeper.
Together with her best friend, Jane opened the store after leaving a position in corporate Human Resources. She said she traded an hour and a half daily commute for a three diminutive commute, and verily enjoys her new lower-stress lifestyle. Oh What Fun has a very loyal buyer base, and Jane added that she verily sees the Kingston Road neighbourhood changing. A lot more habitancy are becoming aware of the unique shopping opportunities along Kingston Road, and she has noticed a exact trend of couples and families interesting back to the city from the suburbs. The Beach in singular has become a very trendy area, and numerous real estate development projects attest to the revival in the Kingston Road area.
Jane added that her store has also become a meeting place for assorted neighbourhood residents. She told me of one lady who frequently comes in, pulls up one of the chairs and chats for half the afternoon. Jane likes to keep things light and fun, and is glad she made her transition into entrepreneurship.
ooh aah! just a few doors further west, is a gallery and gift shop that features
work by artisans from all across Canada. Jewellery, ceramics, glass,
textiles, woodworking, illustration and photography are well represented,
and all pieces are unique. Sharon Bauman, the manager, showed me through the
store and first pointed out the Gingerbread Studio variety of canvasses,
wall plaques and fridge magnets. Norm Stiff of Gingerbread, in Elora,
illustrates a variety of images along with old streetcars and iconic themes
from Toronto and the Beach.
Wellington ceramics by old Beach potters Maggie Murdoch and David Drown,
is someone else featured line. Jewellery however, is the main focus, with work by Neska of Edmonton, Bejewel in Fredericton, and Liza Ridout here in Toronto,
to name a few. Sharon demonstrated a "shimmer": a thin, decorative scarf
with a variety of textures that is used instead of accepted jewelry,
made by Leslie Ross in Brampton. She adds that when owner Nancy Van Ihinger
came up with a name for the store, ooh aah!, it turned out to be the perfect
choice to best reflect the reaction of the customers. When in the shop you
can often hear habitancy oohing and aahing over the items in the window. Today
ooh aah! is a beloved destination for habitancy who are looking for that
special something.
The façade of someone else neighbourhood store caught my attention, so I decided to pop in at Stamps, Cards and Mailables. I introduced myself to the owner who was sitting behind the counter. The diminutive she saw my name in print, she pronounced it correctly in German, and as I talked to her a bit more, I detected an Austrian accent. (Being from Austria myself, I can spot an accent from my home country with approximately 100% accuracy). Elfi (Elfriede) Walter confirmed and said that she arrived in Canada from the province of Lower Austria in 1960. Together with her husband, she opened Stamps, Cards and Mailables in 1973, and hers is assuredly one of the most established market in the neighbourhood.
Originally her store was specialized in philatelic items because her husband was a passionate stamp collector. He also used to cope appraisals for other stamp collectors. Since his death Elfi has converted the store into a more normal gift store that still carries philatelic items, but also gift cards, post cards, and a variety of books. In addition, Elfi also sells stamps and handles some post office duties for her clients.
Stamps, Cards and Mailables is open Mondays to Saturdays from 9 am to 5 or 6 pm. Elfi said that in the summer she regularly closes for about two months; she verily deserves the rest and recreation after so many years in business. I asked her if her store has a website, and she responded "not yet". But she is seriously thinking of taking a basic web fabricate policy in the spring. There is nothing like schooling and broadening your mind to keep you young, and Elfi enjoys learning and meeting people.
Art expresses itself in many ways along Kingston Road, and at Celestial Stained Glass art is not only sold, it is also produced and taught. Alicia Niles, the manager, explained that Celestial Stained Glass was opened 28 years ago and that this is their third location. They moved in last October and like the new larger floor space. Celestial Stained Glass sells stained glass and hot glass beads for jewelry making; they also heal and restore existing stained glass pieces and furnish practice stained glass art for special buyer requests. In addition, the back of the store features a teaching studio, the location of specialty stained glass courses and hot glass beadmaking taught at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels.
Alicia added that everything the store sells is verily made right on site and supplies for stained glass and hot bead development are on offer also. She also demonstrated the hot glass beads to me and explained that glass rods of dissimilar colours are melted with a blow torch and wound nearby a metal rod. several colours can be melted together, creating interesting colour effects. These hot glass beads are then annealed in a kiln to safe them, following which they can be turned into jewelry.
I started to comprehend that Kingston Road is a real hotbed of artists and artisans, and my next stop took me into the realm of textile arts. Quilters orchad is a very specialized store that supplies everything a quilter could ever need. Sharon Long, the owner, indicated that she has owned the store for about 11 years now. When I asked her if she had all the time been involved in the textile arts enterprise she laughed and said that she used to be an accountant who used quilting as a recipe of stress release. Sharon explained that both accounting and quilting involve a lot of math. When her enterprise got bought out she was offered a severance box and decided to open her own quilting store.
Quilters orchad has more than 1000 bolts of cotton fabric for sale, covering all colours, shades and designs. A room in the back of the store has been turned into a classroom where several instructors teach dissimilar levels of quilting. Most courses are 10 weeks long, and beginners classes start with a "sampler quilt" where every block encompasses a dissimilar technique. For many of the quarterly quilters, mostly women, but also some men, Quilters orchad is a great place to socialize and pursue a joint passion. Sharon also has a heart for the community and her 30 hour "Quilt for a Cure Quilt-a-thon" will run from noon on March 30 to 6 pm on March 31 with proceeds going to breast cancer research.
Well, any travel writer gets a bit tired and hungry, and after all these interviews it was assuredly time for lunch. Just a few steps east of Quilters orchad is The Pastry Shop, a cute diminutive neighbourhood café that offers a wide variety of ready foods such as soups, patties, sandwiches, rice dishes, curries, salads and quiches. Baked goods contain croissants, breads, and cookies; specialty items such as packaged coffees, Kahlua and Bailey's flavoured chocolates and a variety of teas round out the merchandise.
I ordered a vegetarian curry rice with chick pea curry and an old-style cherry flavoured soda and sat down for a bit to quench my ravenous hunger. The curry was delicious, spicy but not overbearing. Adrianna Underwood was attending to a continuous stream of customers, and when she had a merge of free minutes she explained that the curries are some of the most beloved dishes and come in seven dissimilar flavours: chicken, beef, chickpea / spinach, cauliflower, dal (lentil), eggplant and potato. The gingerbread and sugar cookies are also favourites, along with the brownies and blondies (a vanilla cake with fruits). looking at the tasty options in the display case I could assuredly understand why this place is popular.
Appropriately strengthened I continued my explorations along Kingston Road and popped into The Great Escape, a second-hand bookstore owned by retired teachers Bruce and Marg Ewing. Bruce was just inundated with a large shipment of books and did not have a lot of time to talk, but he explained that his store was named after a movie and the fact that reading is a great escape.
Bruce mentioned that his son just recently gave them a website as a present for Christmas, although Bruce himself is not all that web-savvy. The Great leave offers an occasion to buy, sell and trade used books, and it also carries a option of new bestsellers. The store carries more than 5000 books, consisting mostly of paperback fiction, but also includes a option of non-fiction, art, history, sports, music and forces books. A well-stocked children section rounds out the option at The Great Escape.
Last but not least I dropped in a the Cobalt Gallery, a clay studio and gallery where I had popped in before, but Annette Hansen, the owner, had been busy in a underground ceramics session. Now the class was terminated and she was free, and we had a occasion to chat. Annette has been operating her ceramics shop for approximately three years now and also rents her space to optic artists. Her store features glass items, blown glass and jewelry in addition to the clay pieces produced by Annette herself. In addition, Cobalt Gallery carries functional metal art by Weld-done Designs, a Toronto artists located in the Dundas and Carlaw area.
Cobalt, a deep intense blue, has all the time been a colour that appealed to Annette, so it was only natural that she would choose this colour as the name for her store. In the back of her store she teaches ceramics to adults and children. Group lessons for adults hold up to four habitancy while children's lessons can accommodate five participants. Cobalt Gallery also offers gift certificates for 2-hour ceramics classes. In addition, Annette produces her own practice designs and outdoor art in clay and concrete.
Views of Kingston Road: The tasteless Ground Coffee and Sandwich Shop and Shelley & Chenny Food & Arts
My walk along Kingston Road had come to an end, but I had discovered a whole new world of shopping opportunities, of creativity, fabricate and craftsmanship. I also came across several places that offer learning opportunities for the normal group to eye how to furnish art themselves. And I was astounded how many old corporate employees had chosen to start a second occupation on Kingston Road. Not surprisingly the market along this East Toronto street have become a community conference place for many.
The Kingston Road enterprise Community: welcoming, diverse and creative. assuredly worth a visit!
Presenting - A Walk Along Kingston Road To scrutinize A Wealth Of Creativity And Shopping Choices
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