WORDS & PHOTOS BY CHRIS TIESSEN
‘Alysha and I have always daydreamed of whiling away our afternoons at some European café or other,’ Robyn tells me from our cozy table tucked into a far corner of the loveliest sun-drenched room. ‘After some time,’ she continues, ‘it occurred to us: why don’t we make the effort to turn these dreams into reality and open our own European-style café?’ Alysha, who’s seated with us, chimes in: ‘And so we did – and this is how it turned out.’
I look up from my americano and survey the bustling space. To my left, nestled into a two-seater, a couple of undergrads dressed in oversized wool coats and matching earth- tone beanies sip cappuccinos. Just past them, at a table positioned under a large window, three elegant older women bring each other up to speed over tea and sweets. Straight ahead of me, framed through an arched opening in one of the room’s stark white walls, a skilled barista crafts a latté for a patron who’s just out of sight in the room next door. And all around us, positioned on clean shelving units and long wooden tables, curated product – from scented candles to potted plants to ceramic vessels to specialty soaps and salts to cookbooks and so much more – fills the room with beauty. Warmth. Comfort.
‘It’s all turned out rather spectacularly, I’d have to say,’ I reply to Alysha with a grin.
It’s early afternoon on a Friday in mid- November and I’m visiting Robyn Maude and her business partner, Alysha Maxwell, at these best friends’ still-new business venture, Sunday Blooms. A sort of amalgamation of Robyn’s two previous (and recently shuttered) downtown Guelph initiatives – the fabled Blooms + Flora and the storied Sunday General Store – Sunday Blooms is the shop that Robyn and Alysha (or ‘Rob’ and ‘Al’, as these two besties lovingly refer to one another) have always wanted to open together. A café, yes (to satiate those daydreams). But also a general store (a nod to Sunday General), a florist (à la Blooms + Flora), and an ice cream parlour, too. Because who doesn’t love ice cream, amiright? Oh, and a space for organized book clubs, workshops, and more. ‘A club hub,’ Alysha blurts out with a laugh.
‘While I adored my first two businesses,’ Robyn remarks, recalling her floral shop and general store (which were housed along Guelph’s historic Suffolk Street – just blocks away from Sunday Blooms’ Woolwich Street address), ‘they came with compromises.’ I’m intrigued. Robyn continues: ‘Blooms + Flora, for instance, had outgrown its awkward space within just a couple years of opening – and the business
never slowed down from there. And while I really loved the cozy space we were in at Sunday General, its coffee bar – which was only ever supposed to be a complementary element of the broader shop – soon became so popular that it, too, demanded more room.’ It’s a great problem to have, really. Two booming businesses on the same street in the same city that had each outgrown their spaces. And a predicament that came with a fantastic resolution: a larger space that could cradle both businesses – and larger aspirations, too.
Specifically, just as Robyn and Alysha (who, at the time, had been working with Robyn in visual merchandising and store design at Sunday General after gigs with such heavy hitters as Banana Republic, IKEA, and more) knew they wanted to build something bigger, together, the owners of Guelph restaurant Artisanale decided it was time to move on from the space they had occupied on Woolwich. ‘We scooped the place up this past May,’ Alysha tells me, ‘and by July we were open for business.’ Not an easy task, but one that was made doable with the help of Robyn’s husband, Ben, and his business, LPC Construction. Oh, and by the lovely staff at Sunday Blooms, too, who paraded much of the furniture and product from Blooms + Flora and Sunday General to Sunday Blooms – dancing and laughing (and strategically posting to socials) along the way. And now, just a few months after opening to the public, we’re here. And so is everyone else in town, it seems.
Indeed, while Robyn and Alysha and I chat about the whole affair, dozens of customers pop in and out of Sunday Blooms’ wonderfully- appointed two-room space. Some, like us, for coffee and treats – including roasts by Guelph’s Cavan Coffee and baked goods by such Royal City standards as With The Grain Bakery, Killer Cupcakes, and The Baking Professor. (Try the gluten-free pop tarts. What a phenomenal concept.) Others for floral arrangements – available either as ready bouquets or via custom orders. Not too many (on this brisk November afternoon) for ice cream. And most, it seems, for holiday shopping – which is, already, on this mid-November afternoon, in full swing.
Robyn and Alysha guide me from the room where we’ve been chatting to an equally luminous (and slightly larger) front space that features the business’ sea-foam-coloured wraparound counter (with espresso machine, treats, ice cream and cash) and most of the floral arrangements (the prettiest sight). I spot so many more fun products here: marmalades and mustards (from Saltspring Kitchen Co), mushroom milks (from The New New Age), plant-based seafoods (from Seed To Surf), spiced raw honeys (from drizzle), and more.
‘We try really hard to source at least ninety percent of our items from Canadian outfits,’ Alysha tells me as we pass by a wall of spot-on greeting cards printed in the most delicious teals and violets and golds and blacks. She continues: ‘It’s a mandate of ours to support smaller Canadian enterprises – to grow with them through the years.’ It’s also a mandate to hire fantastic staff, I’m quick to realize as each customer is greeted upon entering the space. More than once I hear Sunday Blooms hires greet regulars by name, ask about their families, pet their dogs, make faces at their babes in arms. ‘We love our staff,’ Robyn tells me, ‘and they, in turn, love their work.’ It certainly shows.
As our tour continues, Robyn and Alysha usher me down a hallway into what used to be the former restaurant’s kitchen. In place of cooks and knives and French cuisine, a handful of Sunday Blooms staff clip and prune and arrange what look to be hundreds (if not thousands) of flowers into whimsical arrangements. ‘This is the heart of the floral side of the business,’ Robyn tells me. ‘While we sell floral arrangements out of the store,’ she continues, ‘we also make sure to serve the boutique wedding market too.’ And fulfill monthly floral subscriptions. And daily deliveries. ‘We also organize floral workshops,’ Robyn adds. As if there’s any more time in a day. Further along the hallway and out a back door, Robyn and Alysha guide me onto the Sunday Blooms back patio – perhaps its most spectacular asset. Cradled between century-old buildings and (in warmer months) shaded by mature trees, the space is like some secret garden. ‘We’re actually in the midst of transforming the patio into an outdoor holiday market,’ Alysha tells me, adding: ‘It should be up and running by the time your magazine comes out.’ Readers pay heed.
As the three of us walk back through the business to the front door where I will bid Robyn and Alysha adieu, I note that the place is still animated with patrons. And I’m filled with happiness. For Robyn and Alysha’s successes, of course. But even more so for the fact that folks like ‘Rob’ and ‘Al’ still exist – filled with passion and willing to spend time and money to create physical spaces where people can gather, and learn, and buy cool stuff for themselves and their friends and families. When I tell them how I feel, Robyn comes back to what she told me initially: ‘We really just wanted to create a space where we’d love whilingaway our afternoons.’ Turning daydreams into reality. For these two. And for all of us too.
SUNDAY BLOOMS
214 WOOLWICH ST, GUELPH ON
shopsundayblooms.com