If Toronto is a city of neighbourhoods, then the easiest way to get a grip on each enclave’s soul is to take a tour of the local LCBO. There’s the gay swishiness of the Yonge and Wellesley store, with a dab of downtown down-and-out thrown in, high-alcohol tallboys and chardonnays sharing the same shelves. Hang around the touristy Yonge and Dundas checkouts long enough and you’re bound to see the banishment of a pimply boozehound carrying Hollister shopping bags but no ID. Big-spending Summerhill’s got the most wine consultants on staff while edgy Parkdale must have the most security guards per square foot. I’ve witnessed two fistfights outside the Bloor and Ossington LCBO and lots of model-like young women at the big one on Queens Quay. The new location in Liberty Village is, like its customers, shiny and somewhat characterless.
That leaves poor Roncesvalles with nowhere to showcase its unique blend of Polish scowl and yuppie-stroller culture. The Bloor and Dundas West location that had served the area closed a few years ago when the LCBO lost its lease at the bleak Crossways Mall.
Dale Fallon, a Roncey resident of 10 years who likes his imported reds and Canadian whites, is tired of going all the way to Queen and Brock to buy his booze.
“It’s a never-a-dull-moment LCBO,” says Fallon of the Parkdale liquor store. “But it’s a bit far to walk and it’s not a great selection. Let’s just say they’re not in the business of selling $40 and $50 wines.” It should be noted that his wife just had a baby, giving them a strong preference for businesses that are “stroller-accessible.”
Fallon is a web-media guy, director of mobile technology for The Score sports network. But he also has a degree in geography. So following a hunch that Roncey was under-served, he plotted a map of West End LCBO locations and drew one-kilometre circles around each of them, figuring the distance represented a walk of about 15 minutes. His hunch was right.
“Lo and behold, there was a big hole right in our neighbourhood,” says Fallon. When he
put his map online he discovered there was already a 187-member Facebook petition for an LCBO in the ’hood. He was not alone. Though places like the Junction and Temperance Street are associated with Toronto’s prohibitionist tendencies — the sale of alcohol in the Dundas-Keele area
was not permitted until 1997 — it seemed that Roncey was the real dry county. Residents concede the street has been booming, making good storefront hard to come by. So there was particular excitement this winter when Rogers closed its location at the corner of Roncesvalles and Howard Park; the old bank building seemed perfect. Who needs DVD rentals when you have easy access to single-pour margarita mix?
But the LCBO, like many monopolies, is a complicated, slow-moving beast. Market demand is only one factor in opening a new store. There’s the annual expansion budget, much of which is earmarked for renovations of old stores. There’s accessibility, visibility and the physical structure of the building — booze weighs a lot.
“We’re going to have something going in there as quickly as we can,” says media relations coordinator
Chris Layton. (His own local is at Queen East and Coxwell: “The clientele there is varied. Some are interested in wine for home entertaining. Others are more interested in quicker purchases.”) In fact, Layton says the LCBO is currently in negotiations with a property owner in the area, though the who and the when are still hush-hush. “We hope to reach a deal in the not-too-distant future,” he says.
Fallon can’t wait.
“It might sound snobbish, but I like to think of picking up wine as the same as going to the baker or the green grocer,” says Fallon.
Until he’ll have to settle for brewskis — Roncesvalles at least has a Beer Store.