Food geography, entrepreneurship, and the city's newest pop-up bar
Just a few days ago, Toronto Life magazine presented "Twelve Toronto bars that have decked their halls for the holidays (external link, opens in new window) ". It appears that the trend of bars setting up festive decor and offering holiday-themed drinks has started in 2018. Among this year's featured venues, Ginger’s Cocktail Bar (external link, opens in new window) , described by Toronto Life as a "literally sweet holiday pop-up at Le Dolci’s Railpath-adjacent culinary studio", caught our attention.
Meet Lisa Sanguedolce, Applied Geography class of 2000, a marketing and public relations professional turned serial food entrepreneur! Lisa first opened Le Dolci Bakery & Culinary Classroom in London, UK, in 2008. She moved the business home to Toronto in 2011, and has been expanding and adding ventures ever since. For example, Lisa pioneered lactation cookie production to Canada in 2019 and now, she just opened Ginger's for the 2024 holiday season.
Ginger's is a pop-up retail venture running from November 15 to December 29 in Toronto's west end. The space is reserved for corporate and private events during the day time and opens to the public at night. On the menu are Christmas-themed cocktails, mocktails, and sweet treats. A modest reservation fee is passed on to the Daily Bread Food Bank and walk-in customers are welcome.
We asked Alex Arifuzzaman, himself a graduate of Applied Geography and Founding Partner at InterStratics Consultants Inc., about the role of pop-up stores for Toronto's retail economy. Alex identified benefits for everyone involved: "For landlords, it provides an opportunity to temporarily repurpose available space for revenue. For aspiring retailers or startups, it is an opportunity to enter the market in a high traffic venue for a limited time period and limited cost. There is no need for a long term commitment or extensive retail fit-out. Popups essentially provide a proof of concept for their idea which can ideally grow into something more permanent if the venture succeeds. For shoppers, these locations provide unique and differentiated retail offerings that ordinarily are not available."
Meanwhile, Lisa fondly remembers her studies of Applied Geography and "loved every minute of the program". She had some "inspirational and briliant" professors and recalls that "field trips to Arizona and Las Vegas and Detroit were such amazing learning experiences". Although Lisa "didn't like the number crunching" aspects of geospatial analysis, she enjoyed her human and cultural geography education, developed strong marketing and entrepreneurial skills as well as professional communication and networking, all core elements of what is now the BA (Hons) in Geographic Analysis (Co-op) at TMU.
During the pandemic, Lisa sold the bakery side of her business in order to focus on managing Le Dolci Culinary Classroom, which is included in TMU's alumni gift guide (opens in new window) . She also shares her experiences with other food lovers and professionals on her podcast, Culinary Chronicles. More information about Ginger's Cocktail Bar is available on their web site (external link, opens in new window) and Instagram account (external link, opens in new window) .
