Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON

Maple Leaf Gardens was home to the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1931–1999. The Leafs won 11 Stanley Cups from 1932–1967 (alas, our last win was in 1967) while playing there. It also hosted the Beatles, The Who and Elvis Presley in concert, wrestling, boxing, basketball and more before laying dormant for about ten years.

Loblaws bought the Gardens in 2004. They converted the arena into a Loblaws grocery store and Ryerson University built an athletic centre upstairs. The new Loblaws store opened on November 30.

From blogTO ... The new Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens is, as one would expect, a pretty remarkable grocery store. Not only is it a huge retail space at 85,000 square feet, but its market-style features — things like self-serve seafood, the grand wall of cheese, and loads of prepared food options — are part of what the company calls its "theatre of food."

Gord and I have been wanting to check it out so we walked there this afternoon (about an hour walk).

Instead of parking to see an event, patrons now park to buy groceries.

Happily they kept the integrity of the building.

Here's Gord at the entrance.

Here's the floor plan ... it's built where the ice used to be.

As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by the grill.

It is indeed huge!

The end of aisle 25 is where centre ice was ... they've marked it with a red circle.

Love cheese? Then check out the wall of cheese!

The dessert section looked amazing!

I couldn't resist a chocolate chocolate cupcake. It was denser than I expected and the big blob of icing in the middle was a fun surprise.

Love chocolate? Then check out the 1.5 foot chunk of chocolate!

There are some nice reminders of what the Gardens used to be ... like a giant blue maple leaf made from the old seats from the blue section.

Tables in the second level have descriptions of past events.

Remember the Maple Leafs as you get your cart.

On the second level, there is a Joe Fresh, a liquor store and a cooking school.

Hard to believe what it used to be! Loblaws has done a great job.

Looks like an awesome shopping experience! Gord and I are going to head there for groceries one day soon.