Finer Things Antiques & Curios at 2797 Agricola has expanded from five rooms to nine. The new rooms are primarily centered on 1940s through ’60s retro furniture, with an emphasis on chrome sets. “I find that now have grown up, they’re getting to the retirement age, their children, who grew up with this type of furniture are now trying to buy it back because they have some sort of sentimental attachment to it,” says owner Jack Craft. Craft opened Finer Things a year and a half ago, and he is especially interested in acquiring antique furniture, but says “it’s the hardest thing to find because typically families keep their nice furniture.” In addition to peddling his own wares, Craft also rents five large display cases to other antique dealers, each specializing in a different area, from antique toys to vintage costume jewellery.
Dinner menu
Quincy’s Restaurant at 6273 Quinpool is operating under new hours as of February 27. The restaurant will be closed for lunch, but open for dinner from 4pm until 11pm. “We’re getting a new chef coming in from Toronto and he’s not very familiar with the area, so this way it allows us to better get all the nooks and crannies out of our dinner menu first, get that one down pat, before we look at trying to put two new menus in effect at once,” says assistant manager Shaun Parker. “Plus it also gives the new chef a little bit of an opportunity to feel out our culture and know his way around.” As for the new menu, Parker says there won’t be any drastic changes. “Basically we feel we have something for everyone, from seafood to steaks to chicken pastas, all the way down to fish ’n’ chips and burgers.” Noon-time diners should note that Quincy’s will still accept reservations for large parties at lunch under the new hours.
More than make-up
Bare Necessities Medi Esthetics is now operating at 69 Terradore Lane in Hammonds Plains. The treatment centre was formerly located on Quinpool, but Tanya Stewart-Nordin moved the business to her house in Blue Mountain Estates in order to provide more advanced treatments. Stewart-Nordin offers a wide range of services, from morpho lympatic drainage and presso therapy to electrocoagulation, clinical facials and podology. “Medical esthetics is basically the new way of the world,” says Stewart-Nordin, “unfortunately in Nova Scotia we’re just starting to get into that aspect.” Medical estheticians are trained by nurses, and Stewart-Nordin first got into the business three years ago. “I just wanted to be able to help people really,” says Stewart-Nordin, “no offence to the frou-frou kind of spa industry, but I wanted to be able to have someone come in and really know what I’m looking at and be able to help them.”
Kitchen party
The Cookhouse has moved from Quinpool to 1512 Dresden Row, in the former home of Key Lime Pie. The new location is considerably larger, and management predicts the new store should be open for business within the week. “We were getting pretty cramped in the old space, so this way we have lots of display area to show off all our wares,” says owner Alan Hatton. “But the thing we’re really excited about is we’ll be able to offer expanded cooking classes and cooking school <\n>operations.” The new store will house a separate glassed-in area with a built-in kitchen for classes, which Hatton hopes to run evenings, weekends and possibly even during the day. The Cookhouse will also continue with their cake decorating classes, and while the larger space would allow for more product, Hatton doesn’t plan <\n>to expand their retail line at <\n>present. “I don’t think we’ll be expanding our product mix very much,” says Hatton, “but we’ll definitely have all the essential tools everyone needs for their kitchen.”
LETS celebrate
Halifax LETS (Local Exchange Trading System) celebrates its first year of operation on Saturday March 11 with a trading festival at St Matthews United Church at 1479 Barrington from 11am until 2pm. Halifax LETS is a community-run barter network working in partnership with the Ecology Action Centre’s Food Action Committee that allows members to trade goods and services outside the traditional marketplace, using a currency called Salties (one Saltie is equivalent to at least $10 CDN, or one hour of work). LETS currently has 62 members, of whom 36 have done roughly $4,000 worth of trade. “It’s not a big difference in somebody’s life, but it’s not insignificant either,” says LETS founding member Michael Barton. “We’re pretty happy with the way it’s going.” LETS members can perform trades online at halifaxlets.com. The detailed website includes a directory of all goods and services available for trade in a wide range of categories, from accommodation and transportation to tutoring and health services. The anniversary festival on March 11 will feature free workshops on bike repair, fencing, fire spinning, personal finances and home energy savings, a clothing and book swap, a bake sale and displays by local non-profit groups. “We just want to publicize LETS, to get the word out there and trade for our members,” says Barton, who says it would be easy to make a day of it. “Get local food at the Farmer’s Market, then swing by and help us celebrate!”
Trade in your business tips: [email protected]
