The Beer Store – Thorncliffe

This is a particularly small, nondescript Beer Store located in the parking lot of the local Thorncliffe Park mall.
The community around it is comprised of largely middle-​eastern ex-​pats of various origins — typically quiet, keep-​to-​themselves, polite, courteous, notably pious, and not really the sort to give much patronage to a Beer Store. I enjoyed how safe the neighbourhood felt. In short, it isn’t really a «beer» kinda place…
It shows in the shop. Small and carrying a minimal selection, this Beer Store handles customers with a kind of bored efficiency — really, the place could be 100% computerized and I doubt anyone would really notice. Its slow pace stands in stark contrast to the long lines and hordes of returns that clog up many a Beer Store. That, at least, is a nice, positive change.
Still, I imagine most of the people who frequent it are largely institutionalized at this point: they live and drink every day like any other, buying Coors or Bud or Labbats or, if it’s a special occasion, maybe Molson Ex or Rickard’s Red. Guinness is a novelty, spoken of in hushed, reverent tones. «One day…»
I once asked if they could get me La Fin du Monde and they looked at me like I had just spoken in tongues. I now know that Beer Stores don’t really bring in special orders — even if it’s a product carried at a nearby Beer Store — but you’d think their employees would at least know it by name.
Anyway, I feel somewhat wistful towards this particular Beer Store. I miss it, as mediocre and almost-​but-​not-​quiet-​forgettable as it is. It’s a curiosity, an enigma, even, and I like that.
It just isn’t an especially good place to buy beer.