On November 30th, Maple Leaf Gardens was reborn. There was so much controversy surrounding the new usage of this building that the grand opening of the Loblaws there became a popular city event. I’m not going to lie but I was very much against turning such a historic building into a grocery store. Say-Urban had to see what all this hype was about.
However, visiting MLG/Loblaws completely changed my anti-MLG Loblaws perspective.
Dori and I arrived at the Gardens around 5pm, after witnessing a bizarre 2000+ colony of bats circle Yonge and Dundas square. To our surprise, there was a line up of middle-aged people waiting to enter the supermarket. We had flash backs to our wait for Drake.
After a ten minute wait, we were finally inside and our jaws dropped. This is no ordinary Loblaws, it's gorgeous. It's like a beautiful dream surrounded by food. The MLG Loblaws makes any other Loblaws look like a No Frills.
We were treated to many different samples of their sections. Some that we got to try were cookies, chocolate truffles, cheese, bread, and tea. The paper cup was actually the most adorable thing I've seen in a while so I decided it was picture worthy.
The inside pays tribute to the historic building's roots too. With a wall mural of the leaf's glory days and on your way up to the Joe Fresh and LCBO you can see that they have made a Toronto's Maple Leaf out of the original seats that used to be in the arena.
If this place was anything but over-the-top grocery shopping I would still be against it. They have done a nice job balancing the historic elements with the new super store and that's what I think is important. Shoppers need to be reminded of this building's significance to the city.
Can't wait to see what Ryerson has in store for it's athletic centre (the other half of MLG), seeing as the university already destroyed Toronto's cherished Sam The Record Man's building.
