The Cookbook Store to move after building sold to developer

ABOVE: The Cookbook Store to move after building sold to developer. Mark McAllister reports. 

TORONTO – The Cookbook Store, a mainstay of Yorkville for 30 years, is moving after the building was sold to a developer.

But the store won’t be closing. Instead, the store owners plan to look for a new location.

“It’d be great to have a slightly larger area maybe, with a wonderful kitchen in it where we could do more of what we’ve been doing, some demos and cooking classes, things like that,” said store manager Alison Fryer in an interview Tuesday. “It’s fun, it’s like you’ve got a clean piece of paper and let’s see what we could do with it. But we’ll keep everybody posted.”

The store will remain open for the time being as the developer still has to design and plan the condos believed to be replacing the bookstore.

But Fryer says she will miss the location. The store opened in 1983 when Yorkville was full of independent bookstores and art galleries, she said. Since then, the neighbourhood has transformed into one of the most expensive locations in the city full of boutiques and restaurants.

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“We’ve gone through a lot of transition in the area. So I’ll miss the area, but I love exploring Toronto in general so I think and I hope that the customers will follow us wherever we end up,” she said.

The store has played host to celebrities including Anthony Bourdain, Martha Stewart – who Fryer insists has a “wicked sense of humour” – and Julia Child.

“Oh coming to work the morning that we had Julia Child for a book signing and the signing was at 9 a.m, but I was too excited, I couldn’t sleep. So I came to work, at around 7 a.m, there were people already lined up to meet her,” she said.

Danny Lee has been coming to the store for ten years and insists the store’s specialty keeps him coming back.

“I love it because it’s just such a great store, there’s so much to discover. I mean, some of the other bookstores you have, a cookbook section, and they have a decent selection but here you can find just everything under the sun,” he said.

– With files from Mark McAllister