The folks behind the delicious Unchained Kitchen are bringing Julep Kitchen & Cocktails to the beautiful space on the corner of Barrington and Prince Streets that was the long time home of J.W. Doull Booksellers before they moved to Dartmouth in 2012. Julep describes itself as “Debaucherous dining & craft cocktails” and plan to open in the Spring.

Flower Child “a boutique for babies and kids” coming to Prince Street from the folks at The Flower Shop in the former home of Rock Candy Boutique

A new cafe and dessert shop Rabbit Hole is opening any day now on Dresden Row near Clyde Street.

The Fourth Lock a casual upscale restaurant has opened in Fall River where the former La Cave de Strasbourg was.

The highly anticipated Taco Lina’s from the folks that brought us T-Dogs and Rinaldo’s is now open inside of Gus’ Pub on Agricola Street. Their initial menu has Baja fish, fried avocado, lengua, fried chicken, mitta, barbacoa and jackfruit tacos available. As well as nachos with queso , house-made jalapeno poppers and more

Mark’s Angels has opened in Bedford Place Mall, the quick serve counter offer Canadian and Filipino dishes

Souls Harbour Mission has opened a thrift store called Mission Mart on Susie Lake Crescent in Bayers Lake

Until December 23, Quinpool Holiday Pop-Up Market is open at 6210 Quinpool Rd. on Thursday and Friday evening and daytime hours on the weekend. Offering baked goods, crafts, pop culture items and more from a variety of small vendors.

As is tradition, Hickory Farms has returned to Halifax Shopping Centre and Mic Mac Mall for you holiday meat and cheese needs?

With all the wind this week a smart promo from my sponsor Cooke Sales

RUA Sports Fanatic in Halifax Shopping Centre is closing at the end of this month.

Agricola Street cafe/bar Lion & Bright has permanently closed its doors “to “focus on” their sister business Local Source

Well I missed one Better Than Her Boutique formerly of Spring Garden Place which I thought had just temporarily closed for a move but they have closed their shop for good.



A new escape room experience and board game cafe is opening in Downtown Dartmouth, Tic Tac Go Escape Rooms and Games opens early next month at 31 Queen St. The venture is from recent Montreal transplant Rebecca-Sarah Potvin. Her first priority is to get the escape rooms up and running then Potvin says she will follow up with the board game and cafe area.

Potvin had previous ties to the area, she first came to Halifax to take part in King’s College summertime English immersion program. Then later as participant of Katimavik, she volunteered at Red Cross where she made friends with her manager who happened to be from Halifax. Potvin would then come here often to visit, “No matter how many times I came here, it felt home”. Potvin found herself laid off from her previous career in event planning and embraced the chance for a change and moved to Dartmouth and joined the entrepreneur program at CEED to help launch her idea.

When the Tic Tac Go opens there will be two escape adventures to choose from, one has you as part of a train heist and the other other, has you in the potions room of a fantasy world. I only saw the the rooms under construction and I was impressed with the detail of them. Potvin has hired set builders from the film industry to give you an immersive experience that makes you feel like you are in that scene. Both adventure are designed for one hour and will be available in English or French.

Princess Auto which I had reported would open for Black Friday, they ran into construction delays and will now open the new store on Jan 22.

The real reward is sharing with all of you when new bars & restaurants open in HRM, and when established ones are doing great things. But a big Thank You to the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia for choosing me as their inaugural winner of the Influencer Award at their annual awards dinner earlier this week. I look forward to continuing to get you folks out there and exploring this place we call home one culinary bite at a time.

IKEA will now buy back their furniture, you upload your pics to the IKEA Family website , they assess and tell you how much they will give you in store credit. Ironically you have to give it to them assembled.

Sobeys has started rolling out new thinner white crinkly bags. The golden age of the Sobeys Bag has ended

Looking for some entertainment checkout the Penhorn Mall and Dartmouth themed tracks from Penhorn Summer on SoundCloud, with songs such as;

BiWay Bars

Tattletales

Reitmans (ft Nap Eyes)

Night Flea Market

Penhorn Forever

Why Did You Leave

& Kicked Out of Staggers

