The Healthy Road
The Healthy Road is a new health food and supplement store on King East surrounded by the burgeoning Corktown condo scene. The four owners have been hard at work morphing the raw bones of the building into the expansive, yet welcoming store. What results is a tony space just like its residential counterparts - brand spanking new, slick and clean.
While it's chock full of much of the same products as any health food store - chia seeds, vitamins and minerals, rice crackers and manuka honey, power bars, organic spices, detox kits, sulphate-free soap, paba-free creams, gluten-free pasta, and cruelty-free makeup - The Healthy Road has smartened up and done away with the crammed aisles and goopy bulk peanut butter.
Upon entering you're flanked by floor to ceiling posts with circular shelving for featured products, while shelving to the back has everything from Taste #5 Umami paste at $5.29 a tube, to Kicking Horse coffee for $15.99 a pound. Everything is displayed clearly and is easily accessible.
The refrigerators at the very back have organic milk, butter, and cheese and vegan ice cream, as well as any other products that need refrigeration. The left hand wall is a tower of protein and green powders in various jars, while the right hand wall, near the cash-out is designated for supplements.
In a genius move, the vitamins and minerals are grouped, not by brand as is often the case, but by type and/or affliction. Sleep-deprived? Various levels and blends of melatonin, valerian root and the like are housed together, same with mood-boosters, liver-detoxifiers and estrogen-enhancers. There's also plenty of protein powder and the like for those working on their bodies. The knowledgeable, professional staff can direct you to the exact pill or tincture for your needs, but for those of us hooked on Dr. Google, this layout is especially handy.
Judging by the initial incarnation, the owners have tailored the shop to the needs of the potential on-the-go clients. For a health store the stuff is all space food-packaged (albeit environmentally) up the wazoo. Besides the organic butter, cheese and eggs in the refrigerator there is nary a local, fresh food in sight, certainly not a vegetable.
It's as if healthy people don't cook, existing on a diet of Kaizen Natural Whey ($2.59 a package) - all the way from new Zealand - and Dr. Joey's Skinny Chews ($19.99). Well, there is organic salsa.
Surprising, and welcome, then that The Healthy Road has an on-site kitchen, and two small offices with potential opportunity for residential naturopath consultations. Hopefully, as business increases it won't affect the profit margin to have some perishables. Maybe just an apple a day?
