ShonTron
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- Joined
- Apr 24, 2007
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- Ward 13 - Toronto Centre
The small town I lived in had no bakery, no indie shop, nothing. The local Chinese restaurant wasn't open mornings. When Tim's came to the next town over, there was much rejoicing because finally we were "civilized" (ok, so we already had a McD's which means we were already partially civilized). That was years ago. Today, the McD's is still there and thriving, there are now two Tim's and still no indies although a couple of them tried and failed -- small town Northern Ontario won't pay those prices and they don't want "fancy".
North Bay has the Twigg's chain, and Sudbury's got a few fancy coffee places (I like Old Rock Coffee downtown), so Northern Ontario isn't entirely lost.
I had a really nice "fancy" coffee from an independent shop in Downtown Barry's Bay a few weeks ago (part of this bus trip). Barry's Bay is not large, nor is it especially touristy (though it is close to Algonquin Park), but it does okay, even with a Tim Horton's at the edge of town. That was a little surprising.