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By 9:20 AM, it was hard to move though the crowd. Such was the interest in the grand opening that 10-minute coffee lines stretched long past the rush hour peak: this morning, Pusateri's arrived at Toronto's Eaton Centre.
Located in the basement of Saks Fifth Avenue at Queen and Yonge, the high-end food hall designed by GH+A Design Studios welcomed its first customers at Toronto's Eaton Centre. Combining elevated grocery store staples with a café, a champagne bar, a rotisserie—known here as a 'rosticerria'—a Roman-style pizza counter, sushi and salad stands, and a one-of-a-kind Saudi Arabian date boutique, the 25,000 ft² space adds a new destination to the diversified offerings within the Hudson's Bay building.
Following on the heels of Saks Fifth Avenue's February opening and the Leña restaurant's late Summer launch at the northwest corner of Yonge and Richmond, the Pusateri's food hall marks another step in the Hudson Bay building's evolution. Although Leña is the only one of the new retailers to contribute a notable street-level presence—and the urban vitality that entails—Saks and its accompanying food hall have changed the dynamic of the space inside.
Like its Sherway Gardens counterpart, the food hall combines the basic—albeit decidedly high-end—offerings of a small supermarket with a series of counters devoted to specialized (and in many cases otherwise hard-to-find) food and prepared meals.
The distinctive herringbone floor pattern is also shared with the Sherway location, demarcating the store as a separate entity within the retail-filled basement.
Inside, much of the space is devoted to on-the-go food, catering to Downtown's lunch and after work crowds. Alongside the pizza, sushi, and rotisserie counters, the butcher features a wide selection of prepared sandwiches.
Cakes and confectionaries also make up much of the store, with the standalone 400 ft² Sorelle and Co. bakery—the local outlet's second location—turning out a wide selection of vegan and gluten-free treats.
The high-end space is accented by visually engrossing displays, amping up the experiential element—the 'event' of shopping—increasingly prioritized by major corporate retailers.
Nonetheless, the morning crowds and queues exposed the luxurious space's limitations, with the subterranean store feeling somewhat cramped amidst the rush. Soon enough, standing in line for an espresso in the basement becomes just that, even if it's at a marble counter.
Still, the new Pusateri's provides an important infusion of supermarket space to the Downtown core. While the counters and ready-to-eat meals are sure to please local workers, the convenience and selection also make the place a viable, albeit expensive, option for after work grocery shopping. For some, the location alone will certainly make Pusateri's a worthwhile place to pick up a few things—or even the full list—on the way home.
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For more information about Saks Fifth Avenue and the Toronto Eaton Centre, male sure to check out our associated dataBase file, linked below. Want to share your thoughts about the new Pusateri's? Leave a comment in the space below or add your voice to one of the ongoing retail threads in our Forum.
| Related Companies: | Bass Installation, Giannone Petricone Associates, LRI Engineering Inc., RJC Engineers, Walters Group, Zeidler Architecture |
