COVID-19 has made things worse in so many ways -- it has cut us off from family and friends, restricted us to our homes, prevented us from dining out and visiting places we love. But, if one good thing has come out of it -- it's that Toronto now has bottle shops for everyone to get their wine fix from somewhere besides the LCBO. And now, The Junction is welcoming a neighbourhood bottle shop of its own, Green Apple Bottle Shop.
Owned by industry professional Joe Lindon, who was forced to reckon with what the future held back in March of 2020 and actively started to think about his next move. As the government was allowing bars and restaurants to sell booze-to-go, he was inspired to open his own bottle shop.
After travelling throughout the US and being exposed to small, carefully-curated, tucked-away wine shops within various cities, he'd kept the idea of having his own bottle shop in the back of his mind. Not only did these places allow people to get acquainted with new varietals and styles -- but they created a bond between the two sides of the counter that we couldn't replicate here in Ontario at the time. He dreamed of opening a place of his own, but the province's stringent alcohol regulations never allowed it -- until now.
The decision to open in The Junction was an obvious one for Joe, who had grown up nearby and worked in neighbourhood restaurants -- so it felt like the perfect place for him to set up shop.
Joe's experience learning the back-end of running a business and building relationships with wineries and distributors after running the Summerhill Boxcar's wine program helped him to curate his own store. The goal is to focus on Ontario producers as much as possible but Green Apple also offers unique products from around the world.
Not only does Joe value the product he is stocking his shelves with but wants to prioritize fair pricing. "The biggest thing to me is to really try to make the price points as accessible as possible," says Joe, which is something to appreciate after perusing several shops throughout the city.
On the shelves, you'll find everything from local beers, rare wines and dry ciders. When it comes to beer, they've got plenty of local favourites from small-batch micro-breweries like Burdock, True History Brewing and Matron Fine Beer.
The shop carries plenty of minimal-intervention, rare, biodynamic and natural wines from a multitude of small producers, as well as Ontario's very own Revel Cider, a small operation based out of Guelph that is changing the way we think about cider.
Joe doesn't intend to just have Green Apple function as a bottle shop, but hopes as people get vaccinated and restrictions begin to lift, the shop will also allow patrons to kick back with their products on their couch, at the bar or out front.
Pick up your next bottle at Green Apple Bottle Shop, which is open from 12 to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
