An emporium at the centre of Vegandale
Lifestyle boutique the Imperative joins plant-positive network
Toronto’s west end has gone vegan.
Bloor St. W. keeps sprouting new, flesh-free eateries and continues to debate an apt nickname — Vegancourt may win out.
And Parkdale may soon be dubbed Vegandale. That’s if Hellenic Vincent De Paul, 35, has his way.
The entrepreneur behind website Ecorazzi.com, the annual Toronto Vegan Food and Drink Festival and the vegan restaurant Doomie’s is humanely taking over the neighbourhood with the opening of vegan retail store the Imperative on Queen St. W. near Brock Ave.
It’s stocked with fashion and household goods that contain no animal products. That means faux leather bags, jackets and pants (a slinky, clubbing-worthy pair by KUT from the Kloth sells for $100). The basement is devoted to cruelty-free shoes, both leather-looking boots and vegan sneakers (dyes and glues often contain animal products in your fave sneaks).
Cross-stitch wall art pieces are crafted from synthetic wools. Face creams and other personal care products on the store’s Great Wall of Vegan contain no lanolin.
Vincent De Paul traces his growing vegan empire to an accidental beginning about 11 years ago.
The Western University grad — he took politics — was working at the family furniture store when the website Clubcrawlers.com went up for sale.
He got it for just $5,700. “This was when the web was still new. It was a bargain.” Vincent De Paul added eticketing functionality to the site and soon had booming sales and 200,000 unique visitors a month.
Vincent De Paul brought on his brother-in-law Pritesh Vyas to help out — Vyas actually went to Toronto clubs, while Vincent De Paul did not — and the two began putting on their own events in 2012.
The business lost $150,000 over an undersold Caribana event in the early years. “We lost money, then we learned.”
Meanwhile, about seven years ago, Vincent De Paul became a vegan. The business — which now puts on 40 events a year under the company name The 5700 Inc. — did not resonate with his personal values, which increasingly became a problem. “I ran my own business but it felt like a 9-to-5 job.”
In 2012, he bought the website Ecorazzi, which was something of a celebrity site, and started posting new content in 2015 that promoted the ideals of veganism.
In summer 2015, he put together the first Toronto Vegan Food and Drink Festival at Fort York.
“The plan was to break stereotypes. Eat junk food and play hip hop.” (He ran out of food and got mixed reviews, but has kept at it and this year, there will be events in Toronto, Chicago and New York.)
At the festival, Doomie’s Home Cookin,’ the Los Angeles outfit that sells vegan Big Macs, did great sales. Vincent De Paul met the owner Doomie and the two hit it off. A week later Doomie called to say he’d found a Toronto location.
The two signed a partnership deal and Doomie’s opened on Queen St. W. last April. The restaurant still draws lineups on weekends.
Last August, Vincent De Paul saw a For Rent sign at this location across the street. On a whim, he rented it.
“I did no research. It was a total gut feeling.”
The Imperative opened in December and features Vincent De Paul’s signature approach: lots of vegan stuff and lots of cheeky slogans. (“Vegan is the new black,” and the like.)
In April, the company — which has seven staff members at its Liberty Village head office — will open another food concept just a few doors down on Queen St. W.
At the store, the artist Jacqueline Poirier has painted a huge mural depicting Vegandale.
It shows off Vincent De Paul’s emporiums, plus the likes of Veganbucks and other imaginary chain locations, plus cows and chickens strolling down the street.
It’s a fanciful image, but with a pretty clear hint of future reality.