Flourist Is Opening a Second Location

Our eagle-eyed editor Anicka was in Strathcona last week checking out a new homewares store, when she heard some local Strathcona scuttlebutt that Flourist, the beloved Commercial St bakery (that I rode to victory in our Best Bakery draft of a few months ago), was opening a new spot on Hastings St. Had I heard anything about it, she asked?

“You bet”, I lied and immediately emailed owners Janna Bishop and Shira McDermott to get the skinny (I’m doing this interview-style to get the story out quickly lest Anicka figure out I didn’t actually know about it).

Yes they’re expanding to Strathcona:

Our location is sandwiched between Prototype and Strathcona Brewing on one side and Les Amis du Fromage on the other, and we’re just across the street from the Garden and the newly opened Flax Home showroom. We’re so excited to be joining what is becoming a really exciting retail strip.

Before Christmas:

We’re aiming to have that open early December. 

The new location will be different:

We moved into a larger warehouse last spring on East Hastings, where our retail flour is milled and shipped out, and now online bakery orders are fulfilled there as well. The space includes a small retail footprint which we are in the process of outfitting to serve as a new order pick up location. There will also be a small selection of our breads and pastries, prepared food, flour and baking merchandise there as well. 

And that’s not all things Flourist:

The Commercial Street bakery has now re-opened! The space looks very different with a lot more real estate dedicated to retail, grocery, merchandise. We still have about 26 seats where we are serving bakery items both sweet and savoury and coffee, tea, wine and beer!

And new Peeps:

We have promoted a bakery team member, Jesse Kirkby, to the position of chef to support with development of the savoury food and bakery offerings. His most recent post was Chef De Cuisine at Anna Lena and Executive Sous Chef at The Willows Inn on Lummi Island. Between him and Tommy [Aird] our kitchen team has never been stronger. Our front of house manager is Elin Wong, formerly of Livia and Dalina. She’s incredible operationally and we’re so excited to have her leading our team.