Cross Kingston at Balsam after a walk through Glen Stewart Ravine, grab a coffee at Black Dog Coffee or Black Canary, wander past Skaut Design and the vintage racks at Softhouse, maybe duck into Ukes Abroad to look at the ukuleles and paddleboards nobody asked for but everybody loves. It's one version of this street.
Another part of the story came from a Beer Store reopening after ten months dark, and its return is worth sitting with if you actually live here.
The Storefront Everyone Walked Past For Ten Months
Beach Metro reported that the Beer Store at Kingston Road and Victoria Park Avenue, in the Henley Gardens plaza, closed in August 2025, one of a wave of closures the chain made across Ontario as the province's alcohol retail rules shifted and grocery stores started selling beer and wine on their own shelves. For most of a year, that storefront sat there the way empty storefronts do: familiar, slightly sad, easy to stop noticing.
On June 22, 2026, it reopened, ribbon-cutting and all, with Beer Store executives and brewing partners on hand for the ceremony.
"This is a very exciting day," Ozzie Ahmed, the company's vice president of retail, told INsauga.
The quote was brief, but the reopening is a notable change on this stretch of Kingston Road.
What The Beer Store's Return Adds To Kingston Road Village
Paper Route Cafe opened at 462 Kingston Road, just west of Lee Avenue, in April 2025. It's a genuinely good addition to the strip, and the owners built it as a community hub with event bookings and a real reason to linger.
The Beer Store's return is one kind of change on Kingston Road, alongside the openings and closures of other local businesses.
The Block's Long Rhythm, In And Out Since 2018
None of this is new for Kingston Road, and that's the other thing worth knowing if you live here. This strip has been cycling businesses out and back in for at least eight years. Beach Metro reported on three Kingston Road closures in August 2018, and the pattern usually looks the same: a long-running shop closes, there's a stretch of uncertainty, and something new fills the space within a year.
| When | What left | What filled the gap |
|---|---|---|
| August 2018 | Kingston Barber Shop (44 years), Fred's Sporting Ltd. (46 years), Beaches Bake Shop (12 years) | Big Carrot, Freshii, Chocolatta |
| August 2025 | The Beer Store at Kingston & Victoria Park | Reopened at the same address, June 2026 |
Sharon Smyl, who heads the Kingston Road Village Business Community, put it plainly back in 2018 when the barber shop and the sporting goods store closed in the same month:
"We are seeing a great evolution in the neighbourhood," Sharon Smyl told Beach Metro.
She was talking about a different set of closures eight years ago, but the sentence holds up. The strip doesn't stay still, and it doesn't stay empty for long either. If you've been eyeing that dark Beer Store for the better part of a year and wondering what it meant, the honest answer is: nothing more than the street doing what it always does.
The Walk, If You Want To See It Yourself
If you want to check all this in person on a September Saturday, here's a route that actually works, start to finish, using what's really open right now.
- Start at Glen Stewart Ravine and walk the oak canopy down to where it drops you at Balsam and Kingston.
- Cross for coffee. Black Dog Coffee and Black Canary sit across from each other, so pick based on how long the line is.
- Head west toward Scarborough Road for Savoury Grounds, the strip's longest-running coffee shop, open since 1997.
- Browse the block. Skaut Design, Softhouse for vintage, and Ukes Abroad are all within a few doors of each other.
- Keep going east past the core to Blossom and Tempest for the apothecary and gift shop version of a coffee break.
- Get lost for twenty minutes in the Great Escape bookshop. It's supposed to take longer than you planned.
- Stop for lunch at Spaghetti Western, sourdough sandwiches or fresh pasta, your call.
- Swing by Courage Foods on the way home if you need something for dinner, it's been the neighbourhood's grocery anchor for years.
- If your walk takes you as far as Victoria Park, look for the Beer Store lights on. They weren't there in April. They are now.
The Beer Store is another stop along the route. Its reopening is one more recent change on the strip.
Kingston Road Village keeps changing, cafe by cafe, storefront by storefront. This year, one familiar sign turned back on: the Beer Store.
If you've been thinking about what your own home on this stretch of Kingston Road, or anywhere else in Upper Beaches, is actually worth in a market that keeps proving it can hold onto its businesses, Toronto City Realtor is a good place to start that conversation. Book a showing or ask for a free home valuation whenever you're ready.
