Culinarium
705 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto
647-430-7004

In the uptown enclave of Yonge and Eglinton, peppered with high-end foodie destinations from bakeries to gelato to dim sum, there is a new kid on the block, with a unique take on the upscale food experience. Offering Ontario-only food products, Culinarium, which recently opened on Mount Pleasant at Soudan, is a gourmet grocery store, the retail division of a company called Savour the Flavour. Their mission is “to provide authentic local food experiences by retailing Ontario’s finest locally-produced products and connecting those passionate about food with local food-producing communities via edible events such as cooking classes, tastings and farm tours.” After spending some time with Kathleen Mackintosh, the store’s founder, it’s clear that Culinarium’s unique mission is one driven by a true love of food.

Mackintosh started the store after learning about similar stores in other locales, such as Edible British Columbia and Marche des Saveurs du Quebec, where vendors succeeded by selling only local products to exacting foodies. “Why not Ontario?” she wondered, and so quit her job as a recipe developer for Kraft and spent a year travelling the province connecting with different farmers and producers. In her travels, she realized just how deep the passion for food runs in rural Ontario, “they have so much passion it just inspires me to find more”, she says. After working in a corporate food setting, Mackintosh says, “it was a refreshing change to meet people that really touched your food”, and so she set about her mission to connect those people to more consumers in Toronto.

While the city is experiencing a high-end food re-birth, with names like Cumbrae and Kozlik adorning menus around Toronto, Culinarium is unique because all the products they carry are from Ontario - “nothing is from somewhere else” says Mackintosh. Ultimately, though, she thinks what will make them different and unique and exciting is the events the offer, which attempt to connect consumers to the actual producers. “I don’t just want to sell you apple juice”, she says, “I want you to come in and meet the apple juice maker, meet the farmer”. Culinarium’s events extend beyond food - with cooking classes, information sessions on food co-ops, book clubs and more, Culinarium aims to be what Mackintosh calls “a community centre for foodies”.

One example of this next-level service is the store’s relationship with the Kawartha Eco-logical Growers. In May, the store will host a meeting about the group’s Community Shared Agriculture weekly food box program, where participants receive a box of farm fresh produce delivered directly to them. Working with the group, and with her experience as a recipe developer, Mackintosh hopes to enhance the consumer experience with these at-times random boxes of produce by providing recipes for the items you’ll find inside. This kind of enhanced food experience typifies what Culinarium hopes to offer to uptown’s privileged foodies.

Amongst the clean whitewashed shelves at Culinarium, shoppers will find many unique products not available elsewhere in the city. From Cider Keg’s sparkling peach-apple cider, to the Ontario’s Finest Collection fruit spreads, to hawberry syrup found only on Manitoulin Island, the products focus on natural goodness. Customers will adore the trans-fat-free Cinnamon Honey Spread from Clovermead, and Uncle Bob’s Pop-a-Cob, a fat-free popcorn from the Norfolk area with no added salt in a whole cob format. Best of all, Mackintosh will let customers taste virtually anything in the store; “If you’re going to spend $9 on a bottle of jam”, she says, “you want to know why”.

With an ever-increasing interest on local and organic products around the city, there’s no doubt that Culinarium’s focus on connecting Ontario producers with exacting food consumers will appeal to many in Toronto’s food community. With a beautiful calming green on the walls, natural sunlight filtering in the window, a large full-service kitchen and shelves of unique Ontario products, Culinarium will no doubt become one of Toronto’s many foodie destinations.