"The spirit behind the project is to give back to the community and to celebrate not just entrepreneurship, but also the people who live here," Grant Nelson, Peterson's director of food and beverage, told TorontoToday at the free pumpkin giveaway in Honest Ed's Alley on October 28. He described the event as a celebration of the whole development opening. The same report said most Mirvish Village businesses, including a food hall, are scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2027.
The development is open, and most of its businesses are still months away. The block at Bloor and Bathurst has opened in a deliberate order. The lane, the park and the smallest shops came first. The largest rooms come last. For anyone living within a few blocks this winter, Mirvish Village is a short walk with a handful of stops. The version built to draw people from across the city arrives with the spring.
The Smallest Spaces Opened First
Honest Ed's Alley is the cobblestone lane that runs north-south through the block between Bathurst and Markham, entered from Lennox Street. The first illuminated sign went up in July. By August, blogTO found crews adding more, several of them painted in the hand-lettered style and colors of the store's old product signs, along with a replica of the marquee that once wrapped the Bathurst and Bloor corner. The site's architecture comes from Henriquez Partners Architects working with Diamond Schmitt Architects. It includes five purpose-built rental buildings, the tallest at 26 storeys.
The alley itself was planned as Tokyo-style micro-retail. 6ix Retail reported a layout of 25 pods. Spaces that size can be filled by a single maker or a small independent shop, and the alley's first tenants fit that description.
- Bazaar Gift Shop at 30 Lennox Street sells gifts, art, jewelry, candles, stationery, décor and vintage finds. It held its grand opening on October 17 and keeps weekend hours.
- SoBR Market and Solyea Tea appear in blogTO's list of businesses with permanent locations along the alley. Soléya Teas sells tea blends and matcha, and the development lists its shop at 30 Lennox Street.
- Batch Cookies is a cookie bakery listed for the alley. It handed out samples at the October 28 giveaway alongside SoBR Market and Soléya Teas.
Markham Street Is Further Along
The alley is the newest part of the block. The streets around it are further along, and most of the block's everyday stops sit there.
| Stop | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Book Bar | 600 Markham Street | Independent bookstore and beverage bar, open daily |
| Honest Ed's Park | 608 Markham Street | 1,213-square-metre City park, opened July 17, 2026 |
| Blackbird Baking Co. | Former Anne Mirvish sculpture studio | Bakery and café with upstairs seating for up to 16 |
| Cremma | Markham Street | Café serving coffee and gelato, listed in the directory |
| Pizzeria Badiali | Markham Street | Second location of the pizzeria |
| Pet Planet, LCBO, Bank of Montreal | Within the development; the BMO branch is on Bloor | Everyday errands, open as of August |
Blackbird's room is the one that changes how the block gets used. Toronto Life reported that the bakery, which opened in Kensington Market in 2014, moved into the two-storey Victorian house that was once Anne Mirvish's sculpture studio. It added something none of its other locations has: seating. The upstairs room fits up to 16 people for coffee, pastries and rotating sandwiches. Co-founder Simon Blackwell told the magazine the seats let the bakery "build a community hub for the people who have supported us from the very beginning."
Honest Ed's Park is the other anchor that is open now. The City and Peterson opened it on Friday, July 17. PFS Studio designed it as a series of garden spaces laid out after the store's signage. Its native trees and plantings support local birds, and its water feature is shaped like a bird bath, a reference to Ed Mirvish's line "for the birds, cheep cheep cheep."
A Market That Returns in May
The alley's first public market comes from a team with a seasonal track record a few blocks south. The Alley Bazaar is run by the people behind the Kensington Flea, which has run every weekend from May to October in Kensington Market since 2017. The Mirvish Village BIA billed the October 17 debut as more than 20 vendors of vintage and artisan goods along the alley, from noon to 6 p.m.
According to blogTO, the market closed after that single date and returns in May 2027, when it is scheduled to run every weekend. That is the same month the Kensington Flea season opens. Until then, foot traffic in the lane will depend on the permanent shops.
Pumpkins Instead of Turkeys
The development is also leaning on the Honest Ed's name for its events. For the October 28 giveaway, 300 pumpkins were spread along the cobblestones on a first-come, first-served basis, with no limits, no registration and no lines. A DJ played while SoBR Market, Soléya Teas and Batch Cookies handed out samples.
Nelson told TorontoToday the event was a deliberate homage to the free turkey giveaways the store held every year before it closed a decade ago. The outlet reported that residents filled the alley with their dogs and children to pick pumpkins.
The Biggest Room Opens Last
The space most likely to change evening plans on this stretch of Bloor is still ahead. The Kitchen is planned as a 19,000-square-foot food hall, bar and live-music venue, and 6ix Retail reported that spaces for independent food vendors were still available. It shares the Q1 2027 timing that TorontoToday reported for most of the development's businesses.
In mid-August, Peterson told CBC Toronto that 48 of about 106 commercial units were leased, and that it was prepared to wait for the "right mix" of tenants. In the same story, University of Toronto planning professor Luisa Sotomayor said large-footprint retail spaces in new buildings are harder to fill than traditional small storefronts because of the high price per square foot. The alley's small pods sit at the easy end of that scale. A food hall and a grocery store sit at the hard end.
The grocery is the tenant with the most direct effect on daily routines. Peterson told CBC in August that a grocery store had signed for the unit originally intended for Bestco Fresh Foods. Until it opens, the block covers bread, books, tea, wine, pet supplies and banking. A full weekly shop still means going elsewhere.
A Walk Through It This Month
For a weekday or weekend visit before the 2027 openings, the block works as a short loop:
- Start at Blackbird Baking Co. in the former Anne Mirvish studio house and take one of the upstairs seats.
- Walk to Honest Ed's Park at 608 Markham Street to see the bird-bath fountain and the garden rooms laid out after the store's signs.
- Continue to Book Bar at 600 Markham Street, which keeps daily hours.
- Enter Honest Ed's Alley from Lennox Street, between Markham and Bathurst, for the replica marquee, the hand-painted signs and Bazaar Gift Shop at 30 Lennox Street on a weekend.
The Kitchen is scheduled to join that loop in the first quarter of 2027.
How fast the remaining spaces at Bloor and Bathurst fill will shape what the surrounding Annex and Seaton Village streets look like through 2027, from the lights on a winter evening to how far a grocery run takes you. If you are weighing a property near Mirvish Village and want a measured read on what the completed block is likely to mean for it, Taylor Townley offers that analysis privately. Request a Confidential Consultation.
