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
BREAKING Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.