Drake Hotel General Store to open this weekend

(thanks for the E-mail from Rock-it Promotions)

The Drake Hotel General Store, located directly adjacent to the hotel at 1144 Queen West, will be a curiously edited shop catering to the sensible and the hedonistic, the traveller and the neighbour. Slated to open Saturday, November 22, it is a destination for fine goods and goodies with a sense of whimsy and nostalgia.

Merchandise will range from French hotel housewares to jewellery from NYC’s In God We Trust ($60-$100), Le Cool guidebooks ($39), Malin+Goetz apothecary products (Essential Travel Kit $42), candles ($39) and totes ($45) from Opening Ceremony, a wide array of vintage postcards and much more. Like the Drake Hotel, the General Store will contain a healthy dose of Canadiana and art curios, including Hudson’s Bay classic striped throws ($150), vintage Toronto and Canadian souvenirs like key chains, matchbooks and badges, ninja stars by local industrial designers Mat/Cult (box of 3/$14) and naughty colouring books by local artist Mallory Diaczun ($30).

The Drake Hotel General Store will also carry much of what you would find in a classic general store with a Drake twist, including tortoise shell toothbrushes and black toilet paper alongside eccentric items like Marie Antoinette action figures and Mexican good luck packets that surprise and delight. New merchandise will appear monthly.

Store designers and directors Carlo Colacci and Joyce Lo, the duo behind local clothing label Shared, are renowned for their recent Toronto pop-up shop and have based the design of the store on the combination of a Queen West gallery within a retail shopping environment. Recycled French country meets urban sophisticate, the 350-square-foot interior will feature reclaimed wood cabinets and mismatched tables crafted from aged materials sourced locally throughout Ontario, and set upon a vintage inspired custom diamond-patterned floor. The exterior sign is a neon cross, reminiscent of traditional European pharmacies. Keeping with the overall Drake mix of high and low, kitsch and chic, the design makes for a retail concept that truly inspires the imagination.

The Drake Hotel is located at 1150 Queen Street West (between Dovercourt and Dufferin), and can be reached at 416.531.5042.