Montreal's favourite salad sisters are coming to Toronto
Nearly two decades after customers started snaking outside of a women’s clothing store in Montreal — not to buy sweaters or jeans, but instead, seeking a tiny 200 square foot salad bar set in the back — Mandy’s Salads is coming to Toronto.
“It’s a tried, tested and true recipe and we’re just hoping that Toronto loves it as much as Montreal does,” Mandy Wolfe, co-founder of the salad chain, told CTV News Toronto alongside her sister Rebecca.
A Mandy's signature salad photographed and soon to be sold in Toronto (Supplied). On Mar. 1, the city will get its first taste of Mandy’s signature salads, soon-to-be located in a Notting-Hill-like space with arched windows and a pink French bistro-inspired interior at 52 Ossington Avenue, between Queen and Argyle streets.
To start, Mandy’s is launching pickups and deliveries before welcoming customers into their 1,500-square-foot indoor dining space the following week.
The doors of their first Toronto location haven’t opened just yet, but already, the Wolfe sisters are in lease negotiations for a second space at King Street West and Spadina Avenue, aiming for a summer opening.
While gourmet salads may no longer be considered a culinary novelty in Toronto, the salad sisters are dedicated to a more meaningful mission that ventures beyond the act of chopping kale and carrots.
“Our mission statement is really that the experience while eating the food is just as important as the food itself,” Mandy said. “We hope to convey that in the Toronto experience as well.”
A variety of Mandy's signature salads photographed and soon to be sold in Toronto (Supplied). “We wanted to change the way that people saw salad as not just a side dish….and not just something that you're having when you're on a diet. We want people to be excited about salad,” Rebecca added.
When they first set out on their journey in 2004, Mandy and Rebecca were determined to shift the narrative surrounding salads from a meal that was brushed off as rabbit food to one people craved and genuinely wanted to eat five times a week.
At the time, Rebecca’s partner had a clothing store with spare space. While he had visions of a panini shop, placing an oven in a clothing store was impractical. Instead, “It turned into salads,” Rebecca said.
Between the two sisters, neither one had prior professional business or cooking experience, but Mandy was naturally gifted in the kitchen and Rebecca had a knack for interior design. The partnership was organic.
“As sisters, we are cut from the same fabric,” Mandy said. “All our values are the same.”
Admiration for family is visibly at the centre of their business — with framed family photos and Mandy’s infamous chocolate chip cookies, which she first started baking in their kitchen as a 10-year-old — both staples at their growing list of locations.
“We want to make [customers] feel like they're home,” Mandy said.
Background
Table Talk is a weekly CTV News Toronto series that explores the people who shape Toronto’s food scene, published every Friday at CTVNewsToronto.ca
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.