The latest victim of Toronto’s condo-building mania: Yorkville’s beloved Cookbook Store

The latest victim of Toronto’s condo-building mania: Yorkville’s beloved Cookbook Store

Community Food Centres Canada CEO Nick Saul and Cookbook Store owner Alison Fryer at last spring’s Terroir Symposium (Image: Renée Suen)

The Cookbook Store, the 30-year-old shop at Yonge and Yorkville, is moving out of its digs to make way for—you guessed it—condos. Since opening in 1983, the foodie institution has done more than just sell cookbooks. It’s served as an unofficial hub for Toronto food enthusiasts, both amateur and professional, who come for its packed schedule of classes and events, including molecular gastronomy workshops, food-focused symposia and celebrity book signings (including four epic visits from culinary matriarch Julia Child). Construction on the 58-storey building is expected to begin before the end of 2014, and the developer says he’s open to the possibility of having the store return as a tenant. In the meantime, owner Alison Fryer is wistful but pragmatic: “Sure, there’s a real nostalgia to it,” she told reporters. “But, you know, we can recreate that.” [Toronto Star]