The former Subway on Gottingen (at Almon) is being sub divided with part being a barber shop and the other a cafe

Produce store Tomavo which already has location in Moncton is scheduled to open their first metro location on the Friday in Bedford Common where Payless used to be.

While in other fast food news based on what I have heard Five Guys Bayers Lake should open the week of January 27 as should the new DQ in Fall River.

Local chain, Lemon Tree is planing on opening their third location late this week on the corner of Dutch Village Road and Central Avenue in Fairview

Mary Brown’s is now open on Cole Harbour Road, in the plaza beside Sobeys. While the Moxies in the Nova Centre has already opened this past weekend.

Bid2Win and online auction site has opened a small showroom at 800 Windmill Dr in Burnside.

In the basement of Spring Garden Place the back counter has reopened and while it is all one counter it is marketing itself as three restaurants Cantina Mexicana, Just Burgers, and Crossfire Pizza



Carlton Cards is closing their Halifax Shopping Centre location

Stayner’s Wharf has closed a staple of the Halifax Waterfront for over 18 years

Urban Gardens on Queen St downtown Dartmouth has closed and will only operate as an online business

All the Partners for Care stores (the gift shops) in the QEII Health Services Centre have closed. The proceeds were going to patient care but the stores are no longer profitable so they have closed them and will have a liquidation sale soon. They are looking for new ideas for the spaces.

Torrid confirmed their pending arrival to Halifax Shopping Centre this week with job postings.

The Healthy Bug which used to be on Joe Howe Dr for years is now open at 120 Susie Lake Cres. in Bayers Lake

Flashback to January 2010. A new eatery with a focus on Mexican food opened, hiding in plain sight, in the industrial part of Halifax’s Bayers Lake Business Park.

A decade later and Cheachie’s Mexican Grill & Tequila Bar just celebrated its 10th anniversary last Saturday.

“When I retired in 2010 Carol Ann (Abbott) and I thought to open a little spot. We did our research and discovered that Mexican was growing along with tequila as the number one growing spirit at the time,” owner Earl Abbott said. “No other Mexican joint offered liquor at the time.”

“So we started to look for a spot and we found this location. Not the ideal spot, but it was in our budget. So we took it,” he said. “The day we signed the lease we were still looking at locations. We still are.”

Things weren’t at all easy at first for the Abbotts. “The first three weeks we starved. People would come in and look at the menu and get up and leave.” he said. “Literally we did $87 in sales. So we decided to put a burger on the menu, the Big Earl, and it was a hit … our dual personality started.”

That dual personality has them with Mexican fare, such as a variety of tacos in soft shells. “No such thing as hard shell tacos or cheese on a taco” says Abbott, who likes to stick to traditional Mexican combinations.

Cheachie’s has chimichangas, quesadillas, enchiladas and fajitas. And then there are the burgers and fries with over the top super burgers like “The Pounder”, which has a half-pound patty and a half-pound of bacon on it.

Abbott said the key to lasting in the restaurant business for as long as he has is, “having a budget and sticking to it.”

“When we took this spot we took a real look at the numbers to give us a real understanding of the kind of sales we needed to get by. Our growth was slower than we expected and it got tough at times but we stuck with our idea,” he said.

When looking for Cheachie’s, you may have passed it dozens of times. It is sitting in a multi-unit industrial plaza at 102 Chain Lake Dr.

The Canada Post run post office in Downtown Dartmouth is moving over to Kings Wharf .Their current home on Queen Street will be going for sale but there are efforts are a foot to see the building gain heritage protection