Over the August long weekend here in Canada, some lovely friends invited us down to their parent's home in Gananoque, Ontario. The city--and their incredible home--lies on the St. Lawrence River. In this part of the country, the St. Lawrence divides the U.S. from Canada, and is also home to the 1000 Islands area. The area, as you can imagine, is spotted with islands--over 1700 of them--and is so incredibly gorgeous.
We spent the weekend on the river on our friends boat and jet ski and it's safe to say that I am now hell-bent on owning a house on the river and a boat. Some day...some day.
On Saturday we had a chance to explore quaint downtown Gananoque. It was filled with old pubs, retro candy stores, and stores you didn't even know existed anymore. As we walked down toward Gananoque's marina, I said to my beau Robin that what the town really needed was a lovely, modern coffee shop and cute boutiques. No sooner than the words came out of my mouth that we stumbled upon the most amazing thing ever: an old building which had been renovated and converted into 3 spaces and now housed a BBQ joint, the most beautiful coffee shop ever and one of the best decorated and curated boutiques I've seen in a while! In doing some more research, I discovered the place, called Axleworks, has been designed to help transform their part of the city into a bustling arts and cultural area. My kind of place!
The smell of the BBQ wafting out of the restaurant and Pig Iron BBQ's neat sign (which I didn't get a chance to snap a pic of) are what drew us in and lead us down the rabbit hole. While we were really disappointed we didn't get a chance to eat at Pig Iron while in town, we had a chance to snap a pic of their menu which reminds me that we need to go back to Gananoque very. soon.
As we wandered into the business next door, we came upon this gorgeousness:
The Socialist Pig is seriously one of the loveliest cafe's I've come across. It included a bar built from books(!), tables made out of old suitcases(!), a huge communal table topped off with a full chalkboard wall featuring the cafe's menu and a lovely chandelier. Utterly swoon-worthy. We had to indulge, of course, and had a couple of infused iced teas and lemonades. They were as wonderful as the decor.
We then stumbled next door onto my favorite discovery of the weekend: Steel. One of the loveliest boutiques I've seen with the most eclectic yet refined decor and displays around. I was instantly smitten with this place and snapped a few quick pictures while I was there. The owner, Shannon, has done such a great job of curating the space both in terms of merchandise and displays.
I emailed the store immediately after we arrived home to ask if they would carry urbanite in their store. To my absolute delight, she said yes and we popped a package full of goodies in the mail to her yesterday. If you're ever in the area--or on the 401 somewhere between Toronto -or- Kingston and Ottawa--stop in to Gananoque and Axleworks. I think you'll love it as much as I did!
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