With the opening of Gordon's Market and Café, Collingwood now has a family run, independent grocery store.
The 9,000 sq. ft. store, located at 1 Hume Street (the Monaco Condominium building), opened on the Canada Day weekend. It is offering a full-service, year-round store with an emphasis on local products with enhanced customer service.
“As customers at grocery stores, we got tired of not getting service. We thought, why does it have to be that way? We found a way to deliver on that while giving competitive prices,” said owner Jeff Meakings.
“We are a family run, independent shop and that creates a family environment where customers want to come back and shop," said Leslie Rabinovitch, owner and wife of Jeff and mother of eight-week-old Margo.
The store is named after Jeff's late father Gordon Meakings, a Barrie family lawyer with a big heart and a community spirit.
“We thought we’d honour him by naming the store after him and really capturing that sense of community that he had. He turned every stranger into a friend," said Jeff.
“We wanted to capture the golden age of grocery. The small format stores where you got excellent service and the employees got to know your name and what type of food you like to eat,” Jeff added.
The couple are building relationships with farmers and local suppliers to provide top quality products while keeping prices competitive with the corporate stores.
They have berries from Barrie Hill Farms, Leafy Bites micro greens from Meaford, local maple syrup and honey. Frozen non-dairy ice cream is Pom Pom brand from Thornbury, Kawartha Dairy Ice cream from Bobcaygeon and Chapmans Ice Cream from Markdale.
While there is no in-house bread baking, they sell bread supplied by Homestead Bakery of Barrie as well as commercial brands.
There is a meat counter and butcher working in the shop preparing ready-to-cook items such as chicken breasts stuffed with blueberries and goat cheese.
The café seats 30 and offers specialty coffees and teas, in-house baked goods and made to order soups, salads and sandwiches.
The couple started construction on the space in February, using Peak Living of Collingwood as the contractor and a local interior design team. The work wrapped up the day before they opened, June 27.
“They worked to help bring our vision to life combining that golden age of grocery and modernizing it a bit to make sure it’s very open and welcoming," Jeff said.
The space is very open and clean. The produce has great lighting and the fridge doors are nine-feet tall, so it's easy to see everything. There is also lots of natural light coming through the corner shop.
Under the new Doug Ford initiative, the couple has applied for a liquor license for the store, which they expect to receive in early August, first for the café space and then for the grocery store.
“We will have a good mix of Ontario producers and expand into old world, so we will have a good variety for everybody,” Jeff said.
Gordon's now employs 30 full- and part-time staff including a butcher, a kitchen manager and a produce manager.
Jeff and Leslie said they have already had a lot of repeat customers and are attracting local chefs for the fresh, specialty items they bring in on demand.
“This store is created for Collingwood and we want to give people what they want in this town. We have the flexibility to do that because we are independent," said Jeff.
The couple who grew up in Barrie are loving Collingwood and the way it embraces entrepreneurs.
“They want us to succeed. It’s pretty incredible being so welcomed into the Collingwood community,” he said.
