Toronto Retail and Restaurants Thread

[isaidso]

Oh dear! I'll vote with my pocket book and stay away. I'll check it out in person first of course.

[ChesterCopperpot]

So Target are supposedly the anchor retail tenant for the new development at 1 York Street / 90 Harbour Street.

[isaidso]

Interesting news. High traffic is exactly what's needed down there.

[ChesterCopperpot]

As someone who lives close to there - a Target there is good news

[icemachine]

Was out to the Bellwoods Brewpub on Ossington a couple weeks ago. Great beers and food (albeit a tad pricey). They're having a bottle sale again this Saturday, and considering the quality of their beers, they are a good value.

http://bellwoodsbrewery.com/

[intervention]

The entrance from Yonge looks so cheaply done - quite frankly, it is just basically a typical big box stacked into a tower with a shitty foyer. The foyer looks worse than one in a 1970's office building along the 404.

I can only imagine the Marshall's in Aura looking the same.

I haven't been down to the food court but my partner wandered down there and it reminded him of the parking garage at Pearson.

[Mollywood]

The food court in Aura looks like the kind you see in Scarborough, in those low rent Asian malls. Let's hope it at least gets some good, Asian food. The shopping areas are very plain, just drywall and glass walls. Of course, it looks nothing like the video or rendering. The colourful designs and cool lighting are nowhere to be found, so far. I also can't believe how small some of those stores are. I can't imagine what they could be used for, except maybe selling long distance calling cards. I think it might even be worse then Metropolis, which is about as low as you can go, for a brand new building.

I predict the mall will not do very well. Toronto has a history of rejecting cheaply built malls, that look plain. (think Chinatown Centre or Village By The Grange) The only thing that saves Metropolis is that it has entertainment (movies & restaurants) and the Future Shop. If you can get one really good anchor tenant, it can save a development but the stores in Aura, are not great anchor tenants and the basement's stores are too small for a major retailer.

[taal]

Originally Posted by Mollywood

The food court in Aura looks like the kind you see in Scarborough, in those low rent Asian malls. Let's hope it at least gets some good, Asian food. The shopping areas are very plain, just drywall and glass walls. Of course, it looks nothing like the video or rendering. The colourful designs and cool lighting are nowhere to be found, so far. I also can't believe how small some of those stores are. I can't imagine what they could be used for, except maybe selling long distance calling cards. I think it might even be worse then Metropolis, which is about as low as you can go, for a brand new building.

I predict the mall will not do very well. Toronto has a history of rejecting cheaply built malls, that look plain. (think Chinatown Centre or Village By The Grange) The only thing that saves Metropolis is that it has entertainment (movies & restaurants) and the Future Shop. If you can get one really good anchor tenant, it can save a development but the stores in Aura, are not great anchor tenants and the basement's stores are too small for a major retailer.

If you've been to the basement of Metropolis, you'd know the good tenants on the higher floors have done nothing to "save" it ... many stores there in the basement have struggled.

I agree with your prediction; Well I'll take it further, I imagine Bed Bath and Beyond along with Marshals and the chain restaurants will actually do quite well, whereas the basement will go abandoned.

[Taller, Better]

It never even occurred to me to check out the lower level concourse. I don't think I even realised it was open yet!

Well, it is not going to win any beauty contests, but not being a mall fan to begin with it doesn't really bother me much. I avoid malls like the plague.

[Mollywood]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

It never even occurred to me to check out the lower level concourse. I don't think I even realised it was open yet!

Well, it is not going to win any beauty contests, but not being a mall fan to begin with it doesn't really bother me much. I avoid malls like the plague.

I avoid malls too, so it's not that I care about malls so much but I do care about Toronto and it's built form. I expect small, low budget developments to have cheaper materials and be light on design but when even the megga projects cheap out, that's pretty bad. How many big, impressive developments do we get in Toronto? We need a bit more of the impressive stuff because I'm getting tired of low quality crap that just disappoints me. The standards of our developers, are just too damned low. These guys just get greedier and greedier and their standards continue to drop. When you see a building over 40 storeys, you expect it to be of a certain quality.

Go check out the basement of Aura and tell me if you think it's a quality development.

[Taller, Better]

Originally Posted by Mollywood

Go check out the basement of Aura and tell me if you think it's a quality development.

I'll give it a whirl, but I am under no delusion that it is a quality development, let alone anything posh.

[Epi]

Someday I hope that we'll get a food court like they have in Asian cities. Even a relatively poor city like Bangkok is far superior to Toronto in food court goodness. I'll have to check out Aura.

I hope 1 Bloor ends up nicer.

[ChesterCopperpot]

Guy Fieri from the Food Network will be in town this week filming at 6 Toronto locations for his show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

http://www.torontolife.com/daily/dai...-fieri-toronto

Caplanskys, The Lakeview and The Stockyards are rumored to be among the locations

[ChesterCopperpot]

“The Works” burger chain is opening another location at the old Pizza Pizza location at Church and Wellington

[ACT7]

Dolce and Gabbana is opening in the old LV spot at 111 Bloor.

[ChesterCopperpot]

I saw it mentioned on UT that the owners of the recently closed South Of Temperance are opening a new place in the base of one of the Parade towers in Cityplace

[ACT7]

Originally Posted by ChesterCopperpot

I saw it mentioned on UT that the owners of the recently closed South Of Temperance are opening a new place in the base of one of the Parade towers in Cityplace

I can't believe South of Temperance closed. That place was jammed wall-to-wall every time I saw it. I thought they were just renovating.

[Taller, Better]

Originally Posted by ACT7

Dolce and Gabbana is opening in the old LV spot at 111 Bloor.

AhhH!! Mystery solved... thanks for the heads up. Is it a rumour, or confirmed?
Also the huge Escada space is now vacated and they have moved to a smaller one across the street.

[Filip]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

AhhH!! Mystery solved... thanks for the heads up. Is it a rumour, or confirmed?
Also the huge Escada space is now vacated and they have moved to a smaller one across the street.

Old Escada + Guerlain will become a Brooks Brothers.

[intervention]

Has Escada moved or closed up shop?