Our New Hive!

Has it really been a year since our last post?  Where has the time gone?  Well, we have been extraordinarily busy bees.  Our building on the 19th Avenue finally sold on January 9th and we handed over the keys to the new owners, Fieldstone Window and Doors. 

We have set up our new hive at The Village Grocer and we are thrilled to be associated with Evan and Cathy Macdonald and their amazing team.  We feel that we have come full circle in our 33 years of retailing in the Markham/Unionville area and that we have come home again.

We first opened our doors in the fall of 1981in the old Queen's Hotel on Main Street, Unionville selling bulk food, cheese and some gourmet condiments. The Village Grocer had yet to appear.
As food was our focus, it seemed natural for us to name our store the Queen's Pantry.  Within a year, we expanded by adding a tearoom and some kitchenware.  Within 4 years, we had taken the entire bottom floor of the Hotel.  The Unionville area was starting to explode with new housing developments so it naturally followed for us to expand into home furnishings and decor.  By now, the tearoom and food aspect of our store had disappeared and we were now happily shopping at the Village Grocer.

In 1998, we purchased the building on the historic site of the old Almira Mill and we christened it, The Queensbridge Mill. By that time, we had a team of interior designers doing home consultations.  We also started to host seminars on design, entertaining and cooking.  Much to our surprise, it was the cooking classes that sold out immediately.  We always took an "artful" approach to our cooking classes.  Our classes centered around themes.  We prided ourselves on being good home cooks but we wanted to impart the playfulness and creativeness in gathering around the table with family and friends be it an inspired "Tuscan Harvest Feast","An Evening in Paris" or "Picnique en Provence". Our classes were informative but they were also very fun.

Evan soon became a guest chef at our cooking classes at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter when the main event centered around the turkey, ham or beef.  He never failed to dazzle everyone with his impressive carving skills as he entertained us with his stories.  It became a natural evolution with the inclusion of a cooking studio when he opened his new location on the 16th Avenue in August 2011.

With the rise of the big box stores and on-line retailers over the past 5 years,  it became obvious to us that we no longer needed the brick and mortar location to operate our design business.  The new Village Grocer location has also allowed us to return to our roots and our love of kitchenware and tabletop accessories.  Life is truly a circle.

We invite you to visit the Village Grocer website:  www.thevillagegrocer.com to find out what is happening in the Village.  You can alway reach us there by calling:  (905)940-0655.

Karen & Linda

P.S.  We look forward to once again sharing recipes, entertaining ideas and tips on decorating.
         Bee inspired!