The Dahlia by Jukai is getting closer, I hear the bar with “Asian inspired snacks” is aiming to open by Valentines. This is the former site of The Watch That Ends The Night at Kings Wharf in Dartmouth.

A Moroccan restaurant called Casablanca looks to open on Queen Street in Halifax next month, it will be replacing Lemon Tree. Lemon Tree recently opened a new location in Fairview.

Ramen has landed in Downtown Dartmouth. Buta Ramen is now open at 65 King St., this is the second location for Buta who still operate their original location on Morris Street in Halifax.

The first Atlantic Canadian location of bakery chain COBS Bread has opened this week in Bedford Place Mall, with and exterior only entrance near Swiss Chalet. COBS first launched in Canada 15 years ago in Western Canada and is part of Australian Bakers Delight who operate over 700 bakeries.

After 49 years Manorhouse Furniture is putting the company to bed an closing their Bedford Highway store at the end of March

Chat Bar near the beginning of Barrington Street has a for lease sign in the window

Fiddleheads has closed their in the Larry Uteck area of Bedford, this marks the end of the children’s store which closed their original location in Dartmouth last year. They are liquidating stock through their website.

14 months after closing in Downtown Halifax and a year after announcing they would resurface in the North End, Sushi Shige is back. This time on Almon Street just East of Agricola Street.

The Bayer Lake Staples (or staples as it now says over the door) had grand re-opening this Weekend. The store is part of new redesign the chain has been rolling out with more interactive floor space for electronics and more furniture. They also have a new area called Spotlight which is a community work space to host events

Located in the heart of Fairview is a new shop called BIGS, which stands for Brothers Indian Grocery Store.

The business is owned by a young couple, Rupinder Kaur and Amit Puggal, who moved from India to Halifax to fulfill their dreams to live in Canada for a better future, says Puggal.

Kaur said that her dream was for a better future “but was always disappointed and sick of doing grocery shopping. I was really anxious during my initial days in Halifax about my grocery shopping experience and talked to many newcomers or settled immigrants about their shopping mantra.”

“We are selling all kinds of South Asian grocery products including spices, spice mixes, pulses, lentils, beans, rice, flours, cookies, snacks, ready to eat curries, cooking pastes, instant cooking mixes.etc in grocery section. We have good collection of Ayurverdic and herbal personal care products in our cosmetic section. We virtually have everything for cooking any South Asian cuisine.”

The store also carries costume jewellery, home decor, fashion accessories and some religious items, which they say are hard to find in Atlantic Canada.

Puggal says they will soon have fresh Indian vegetables and will soon be serving food “like Pani Puri (Spicy water balls), Bhel Puri and other Indian snacks.

They originally started out as an online business. Now that it’s time to evolve into a brick and mortar setting. They chose Fairview because it was centrally located and offered free parking.

They are also able to offer more frozen items in the store, such items were difficult to deliver. They also add that different parts of South Asia have different names for the same thing, so sometimes searching a web portal is not the same as seeing the product in front of you.

You can find the storefront open seven days a week in The Boss Plaza on Supreme Court just off Dutch Village Road – the former site of Halifax West High School.

A personal favourite, Kaiser’s subs in Lower Sackville had their 44th birthday this week

Dollarama has started rolling out self-checkouts locally.