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Introducing: Nature’s Emporium, a 50,000-square-foot organic grocery utopia

(Image: Sian Richards)

Just walking past the juice bar and the pesticide-free garden centre and into the almost ridiculously beautiful produce wing of this 50,000-square-foot organic grocery utopia makes you feel healthier. Nature’s Emporium is a sumptuous testament to the new heights of our food obsessions. Signs detail provenance (the trout is smoked near Wiarton, and Picton’s Fifth Town supplies an army of flavoured chèvres), and a naturopath is on hand to offer advice. Two pastry chefs create gluten-free sweets; the zingy vanilla-orange cupcakes topped with rosettes of vegan icing are pure dairy-free decadence. At the raw bar, living pizzas (crisped slowly in a dehydration oven in the belief it preserves key enzymes) are stunning, especially the one with collard greens and cashew cheese. Luckily for kale-loving downtowners, this behemoth of health is scouting locations south of the 401.

Nature’s Emporium, 16655 Yonge St., Newmarket, 905-898-1844, naturesemporium.ca

The Hype

Cinemania

August 12, 2010 | 11:49 am

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Assigned movie seats, capsule hotels and 23 other ways to make Toronto cooler: Star

Number 16: leave the Entertainment District alone (Image: Angie Schwendemann)

Inspired by Steve Martin’s joke (from, uh, two years ago) on 30 Rock that Toronto is like New York without all the stuff, the Star has published a 25-item wish list. Some are no brainers—elevating condo retail concourses beyond Subways and grocery chains, 24-hour TTC service on weekends—but others are head-scratchers.

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The Goods

Shop Talk

July 22, 2010 | 10:20 am

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Loblaw vs. Shoppers Drug Mart: the grocer is opening more pharmacies

The great retail faceoff

Back in February, Shoppers Drug Mart announced that it would expand its food offerings. Now, in an attempt to shake Shoppers’ stranglehold on pharmacy sales, Loblaw has opened its first small-format pharmacy in Mississauga.

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The Dish

Rumours & Rumblings

May 25, 2010 | 2:03 pm

1 Comment

Eataly coming to Toronto? Rumours swirl amid explained puns and subtle cultural insensitivity

The entrance of Eataly in Milan (Image: singingbeagle)

Oscar Farinetti was in town this weekend, scouting possible locations and looking for a financial partner to help him open Canada’s first location of Eataly. Started in Turin, Eataly is a chain of Italian food grocery meccas. With locations in New York, Japan and, of course, Italy, the shopping phenomenon focuses on education, local products, quality food retail and dining (the Manhattan location counts Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich among its partners). Farinetti wonders which is a better location for his store: Montreal or Toronto?

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The Dish

Pantry Raid

March 4, 2010 | 1:01 pm

3 Comments

Vancouver’s storied vegan cheese, Daiya, lands in Toronto

Vegans melt for Daiya, and vice versa (Image: Jeff Gunn)

Toronto vegans have previously had to go to great lengths to obtain Daiya, the much-hyped vegan cheese revered by the non-meat set for its taste, texture and complete absence of dairy and soy. But according to Daiya’s Twitter page, it’s now available right here in Toronto—at Panacea. Internet buzz surrounding Daiya has been through the roof following its introduction last March. The general consensus among reviewers is that it looks, tastes and, more importantly, melts just like real cheese. It pulls off these feats through the use of the cassava shrub, which is also responsible for bringing us tapioca.

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The Dish

Pantry Raid

March 1, 2010 | 1:06 pm

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Walmart and Whole Foods go head-to-head in organic battle

The wholesomely stocked shelves at Whole Foods (Photo by Hoodrat)

Developing a hate-on for corporations and big-box retailers is a pastime of many, but it may be time for a paradigm shift. The Atlantic’s Corby Kummer was recently taken aback by the quantity of fresh, locally sourced produce available at—cue cringes—a Walmart super-centre, which stocked many of the products sold at Whole Foods.

Kummer was so intrigued by Walmart’s selection (free-range organic eggs, all-natural, hormone-free milk and organic meat) that he decided a blind taste test was in order: Walmart vs. Whole Foods. In purchasing ingredients for the showdown, which was refereed by a panel of critics, bloggers and food lovers, Kummer spent significantly less at Walmart than he did at Whole Foods for nearly identical ingredients.

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The Dish

Rumours & Rumblings

February 23, 2010 | 3:14 pm

4 Comments

Toronto group wants to tap trees to make maple syrup, City of Toronto not impressed

A typical Ontario sugar bush (Photo by Mac Armstrong)

Maple syrup might be as iconic a Canadian food as Timbits, but the City of Toronto is discouraging residents from tapping, the process by which the sugary sap is procured. It’s strange that the city would even weigh in on the issue; who has time to tap, then evaporate the sap, especially when maple syrup is one locavore-friendly food that is always available on grocery store shelves?

It turns out that enviro-activist Laura Reinsborough and her Not Far From the Tree initiative, which normally harvests fruit from backyards and the urban forest, wants to take up the task. Reinsborough, whose efforts made our list of Reasons to Love Toronto in 2009, has started the aptly named We’d Tap That project in the hopes that homeowners will offer five to 10 Norway maples for tapping; their sap will be collected and boiled down for a community party.

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The Goods

Shop Talk

February 18, 2010 | 11:54 am

2 Comments

Joe Fresh founder Joe Mimran gets a promotion at Loblaw

Joe Fresh puts on one of the best-attended fashion week shows (Photo by Jenna Marie Wakani)

Club Monaco founder and Joe Fresh Style tycoon Joe Mimran has been appointed head of general merchandise at Loblaw, meaning he’ll be overseeing the non-food items, such as books, electronics, home decor and furniture, toys, home furnishings, electronics, sporting goods, books, toys and hardware. The announcement comes after Loblaw’s fourth-quarter profits were down $190 million from a year ago, owing largely to weak food sales.

While it’s a big promotion for Mimran, who also founded the dearly missed home decor chain Caban, it’s not a surprising one. He’s managed to turn Loblaws stores into a cheap and chic clothing destination, drawing suburban families and urban fashion types alike. Joe Fresh has become the second-largest clothing line in the country and last year added makeup and body products to its repertoire. The company is hoping Mimran can work the same magic on other non-grocery items.

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The Dish

Pantry Raid

February 16, 2010 | 3:35 pm

6 Comments

University of Toronto prof says buying local won’t save environment

Ontario strawberries: friend or foe? (Photo by Catherine Bulinski)

More bad news for 100-mile dieters: a new study says that local-only eating is impractical and does little to help the environment. The report was released by the Montreal Economic Institute and U of T professor Pierre Desrochers (whose views on locavorism were among Toronto Life’s 25 ideas that are changing the world) and states that people are too focused on the mileage produce travels from farm to store. According to Desrochers, the real problem is that people drive to grocery stores (which emits more greenhouse gases than transporting the food). He also makes the plainly obvious argument that certain places are better at growing certain produce. California’s consistent weather conditions enable the state to grow more strawberries than Ontario, which requires more energy to heat production facilities.

• Will Buying Food Locally Save the Planet? [Montreal Economic Institute]

The Dish

Pantry Raid

February 10, 2010 | 8:24 am

3 Comments

Something is a lot less fishy at Loblaws seafood counters

(Photo by Calc-tufa)

Loblaws put its green foot forward this week, with a pledge to sell only sustainable seafood by the end of 2013. This means that all the seafood products in its stores—from frozen or canned items to cat food that contains fish—will adhere to strict guidelines that prove their makers have harvested and grown the food in a manner that preserves marine life. The grocery chain, which is one of the largest buyers and sellers of seafood in Canada, has already begun prepping consumers for the eco-friendly move. Trays that once sold such endangered species as Chilean sea bass now contain only signs suggesting alternative products (Pacific halibut in this case). Apparently Loblaws has come a long way since this time last year, when its stock of shark fin soup sparked a fishy fiasco among animal protectionists.

• Loblaw displays empty fish trays to highlight at-risk species [CBC]

The Dish

Read All About It

December 2, 2009 | 9:18 am

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Waiters’ secrets revealed, the thieving of oysters, Loblaws to move into Maple Leaf Gardens

The puck stopped here: with the exception of Battle of the Blades, Maple Leaf Gardens has remained quiet for years (Photo by Ian Muttoo)

• After years of delays, a Loblaws supermarket is set to occupy part of the space inside Maple Leaf Gardens. The grocery giant bought the building in 2004—prompting a backlash from hockey fans—but financial issues kept the Carlton Street landmark dormant for five years. A $20-million contribution from the federal government, plus a contribution from Ryerson, which will place an athletic centre in the building’s upper floors, has finally got the wheels moving again. [Toronto Star]

• In a list sure to invoke the ire of New York Times blogger Bruce Buschel, Reader’s Digest speaks with two dozen servers to find out what secrets they would reveal if they could get away with it. Responses range from the vindictive (one server admitted to running soup spoons under hot water to teach cold soup complainers a lesson) to the didactic (don’t take the credit card slip with the tip written on it—the server won’t get anything). [Reader’s Digest]

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The Dish

Read All About It

November 24, 2009 | 8:34 am

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Picking the best butter, ice cream for dogs, robot chefs take over Asian kitchens

Who doesn't have a weakness for ice cream? (Photo by Brian Hillegas)

• Dogs are no longer left out in the cold when it comes to ice cream. A teenaged entrepreneur from New York City has experimented with carob powder, soy milk and lactose-free milk to develop an ice cream geared specifically for canines (dogs are lactose intolerant and highly sensitive to chocolate, so they probably shouldn’t indulge in the human stuff). Taste tests show that dogs prefer the corn and carrot ice cream over vanilla or chocolate. [New York Times]

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons

November 20, 2009 | 4:10 pm

2 Comments

Q&A: three minutes with Naked Chef Jamie Oliver

Caper crusader: Jamie Oliver speaks at Roy Thomson Hall on Sunday

Jamie Oliver will send foodophiles into full swoon this Sunday, when he appears Roy Thomson Hall to speak about his new cookbook, Jamie’s Food Revolution, and his first U.S. TV show, Jamie’s American Road Trip. In the latter, the spritely chef attempts to charm Fast Food Nation into eating fresh, seasonal foods. These projects have been keeping him busy lately; so busy, in fact, that when we caught up with him during his first visit to Canada, we had time for only three questions. But it’s hard to be annoyed when the answers, however brief, are delivered with that musical cockney twinge (see glossary below).

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The Dish

Read All About It

October 29, 2009 | 8:41 am

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A seven-patty burger, DIY mushroom farming, grain- versus grass-fed beef

The Whopping Whopper: 791 grams, 12.7 centimetres, 2120 calories, ¥1450 ($17.25)

A whopping Whopper: 791 grams, 12.7 centimetres, 2120 calories, ¥1450 ($17.25)

• When it comes to weird fast-food promotions, no one beats the Japanese. This time around, Burger King has teamed up with Microsoft, offering a gimmicky version of the Whopper to promote the new Windows 7 operating system. The burger has seven patties and looks like it presents enough logistical problems (How does it stay together? Will we need one of these?) that diners may think it’s promoting Microsoft Vista. [CNET]

• Canadian gardeners are broadening their gardening horizons, branching out into the realm of fungi. A seller of mushroom-growing equipment from B.C. tells the Globe that his sales to hobbyists have doubled over the past year. Some are having an easier time of it than others: one Winnipegger likens the mushroom-growing process to the set-it-and-forget-it mentality of investing in mutual funds, while another ended up with nothing but a mouldy bag of hay. [Globe and Mail]

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The Dish

Read All About It

October 5, 2009 | 10:05 am

1 Comment

Black carrots are the latest craze, Madonna hates cheese, Prohibition feud heats up

Oprah dined at Sotto Sotto while in Toronto for TIFF (Photo by Karon Liu)

• Feuding continues at Queen Street East bar Prohibiton. Ex-manager Joey McGuirk published a letter from his lawyer on Prohibition’s old Web site this summer, which detailed how he came up with the concept of the bar and demanded compensation after McGuirk was fired. Some of his cutting-edge ideas include serving “high-end pub fare,” focusing on customer service, offering more than 15 kinds of beer and being “fun and sexy.” We hope he patented those, because they’re restaurant gold. [BlogTO]

• When Madonna told David Letterman that she’s never had a slice of New York pizza, the host got her a slice with olives but no cheese. Madonna reports that she’s “not a cheese person.” (A body like that doesn’t happen by eating cheese.) We’re just happy she’s no longer a fake-British-accent person. [Grub Street]

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