The Big Move

Our dream is about to come true!  After 17 years of conducting our business on Hamilton’s King St. West and after almost a year of a rollercoaster ride awaiting the completion of our new home we are finally ready to announce our eagerly anticipated move to James St. North!

Since opening the shop in July 1999, King St. West has been our beloved home.  We have witnessed the ups and downs of the street as new, hip businesses like Screeming Mimi’s, Metro, Flatspot and Serendipity once were our neighbours.  

Article from 2003 about the King West Neighbourhood.

An old article in the Spec from the early 2000’s about this blossoming part of King St. West drew comparisons to Queen St. West in Toronto.  Andrew Little, owner of Cottage 13, even took a position as Chairman of the King St. West BIA to help facilitate positive changes in our little community.  However, the bureaucracy of political life did not agree with him and he gave up his position to better focus on his job as tattooer and shop owner.  As the landscape of our neighbourhood evolved we witnessed the ups and downs of the street.  Slowly, the small businesses around us either closed or moved away and the street became populated by fast food …we affectionately named it “shawarma ally”.  The final nail in the coffin was the dedicated bus lane that put a tremendous amount of strain on small businesses due to loss of street parking. We outlasted many of our neighbors through the bus lane fiasco.

 Business owners Andrew and Yolanda speculated for a number of years on moving to the James St. North area but felt that most of the spaces were too small to meet our needs.  We heard through the grapevine that the building near the corner of James and York was about to undergo a major renovation. 

Our prospective home in its raw state. Nov. 2014

Preliminary meetings with the owners/developers rekindled our hope for a space where we could grow as well as be surrounded and supported by other successful, creative businesses.  The decision to move is less about a bigger space than about becoming part of a community that inspires us and will allow us to flourish creatively and personally.  Our original move date was slotted for August 2015.  However, due to construction issues and a major change in the plan for the building our August move was delayed almost a full year.  Through all the curve balls thrown in our direction we held fast to our dream of moving and persevered with our plan.  Even though aspects of this dream have changed, our determination has paid off.  We absolutely can’t wait to share our new space with you and be part of monthly Art Crawls on James St. North.