Mr. Surprise at The Well

Mr. Surprise is a specialty toy store where you can find various high-quality blind boxes, designer toys and trendy collectibles. They also work with local and international artists for collaboration projects as well as providing them with a space to exhibit and sell their artworks. 

“Founded in 2019, Mr. Surprise has grown to one of North America’s leader in designer toys, art, stationary and lifestyle goods. We are dedicated to continuously bringing you happiness, entertainment and amazing surprises everyday. We have collaborated and will continue to work with many Canadian and International artists to create phenomenal pop up events in order to cultivate the designer products market.”—thewelltoronto.com

Free Drop Off / Pick Up Service 

Mr. Surprise also offers 14-days free in-store storage for customers to do a Drop Off / Pick Up service for the toys they sell on social media platforms. How it works is if you’re a seller, after you find a buyer for your toys on social media, you can bring the sold toys to the store for storage. They will provide clear bags to pack you your toys in and labels for you to fill out. 

For the labels, you can write either ‘Paid’, ‘Unpaid’ or ‘Trade’. If the toy is unpaid, the store will make sure that the person picking up the toys show proof of payment before the hand off. If the toy is a trade, the store will make sure that the person picking up the toys must do a drop-off in return.

After you packaged everything, take a picture of the package and send it to your buyer. The staff will then store the package for you until the buyer come to pick it up by showing the picture you sent over to them as proof. 

If for any reason your buyer cannot pick the toys up within 14 days, storage extension is possible as long as you notify the store via text or call. 

So essentially, Mr. Surprise is playing middle man for these transactions, making it a little safer and convenient for the community to buy, sell and trade toys. Plus, it is a good marketing strategy for them since it gives them additional foot traffic of people who’s highly likely to buy something from the store.

The main reason I visited Mr. Surprise at The Well was exactly for this reason. My friend bought two Labubu from a seller on Facebook Marketplace and the seller has dropped off the items at the store. We came in, she showed the picture the seller sent over to the staff and they located her packages soon after. And since she only paid for half of the transaction, she then paid the remaining owed amount and showed the proof of payment to the staff before they handed both of the purchased Labubu boxes to her. On top of that, she also ended up buying a DIMOO Bear Dad from the store.  So the complimentary service is really beneficial for the customers and the store as well. 

If you’re looking for toy collectibles and blind boxes like the currently internationally hyped Pop Mart collections in Toronto, certainly check out Mr. Surprise at The Well or at their Scarborough location.

 

Mr. Surprise at The Well

Address: 486 Front St W LG08, Toronto, ON M5V 0V2, Canada
Telephone: +14379831823
Hours: Everyday 11 am - 7 pm

Instagram: @mrsurprisethewell

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The Well Toronto

The Well is Toronto’s biggest mixed-use downtown development that was opened November last year. Located in between Front, Spadina and Wellington, you can find retail shops, food services, office space, and residential units in the massive 7.6-acre mixed-use complex they occupy. The 11-years in the making project is a joint venture between two top urban developers RioCan REIT and Allied Properties REIT and recently has become the newest addition to Toronto’s iconic landmarks.

The architecture of the The Well is nothing short of impressive. Seven different world renowned architecture firms were responsible for designing three condominiums towers, three residential rental towers, one office tower and a 3-level retail area nestled at the bottom of these towers. Their goal was to create a a people-focused property that foster human connection and community building which resulted in this huge pedestrian-centric and easy to navigate complex. 

One of the most stunning part of The Well is the glass-covered passageways that are connecting the seven towers. This German-engineered glass canopy was shipped piece by piece from Germany to Canada which then assembled at The Well.

“Follow the light and you enter the The Well’s namesake space: the three-story deep, block-long concourse, crisscrossed by bridges, lined with shops and topped with a diamond-mullioned glass vault. Bridges aside, The Well’s form references that of urban arcades built from the 1850s, including the most famous, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. Since the dawn of the department store era, that combination of dark compressed entry and soaring glass roof has unleashed spending dopamine.” —Bloomberg.com

“The most literal inspiration for The Well’s covered mall can be found in many parts of the U.K. “This idea of having a roof like an umbrella, rather than an enclosed space, is something we’ve done in the U.K. a lot,” says Adrian Price, a London-based principal at BDP.

The canopy—designed collaboratively by Hariri Pontarini, BDP, and Adamson, working with RJC Engineers—extends between seven buildings. It is held aloft by V-shaped supports, relying on what Price calls a “continuous walk-in gutter” that extends around the edge of the structure to provide stiffness. The supports, in turn, are designed to have enough give to accommodate building movement, while the panels of engineered glass sit atop the lattice. “It’s the largest structure of its type in North America,” says Price.” —canadianarchitect.com

If you are a visitor, you can find plenty to do around The Well. For dining, there are 12 curated restaurants and bars as well as the recently opened Wellington Food Market with 50 F&B vendors serving cuisines from all around the world you can choose from. For shopping, you can find local brands as well as world-class brands around their 320,000² ft open-air retail walk. Or even if you don’t want to do either, you can always come to just see the impressive architecture and walk around the complex. 

 

The Well

Address: 486 Front St W, Toronto, ON M5V 0V2, Canada
Telephone: +1 416-203-7777
Hours: Sun-Tue 11 am-8 pm | Wed-Sat 10 am-8 pm

Instagram: @thewell_to

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St. Lawrence Market

St. Lawrence Market is the oldest market in Toronto that has been around for more than two centuries. Built in the 1800s in Old Town Toronto, the market has become one of the city’s iconic landmark and is now home to more than 120 merchants and farmers that sell various local and international fresh produce and gourmet food. With the abundance of food choices that are available, St. Lawrence Market has also become a culinary hotspot for food enthusiasts. During weekdays, you can find local craftspeople and artisans selling their crafts in the market. On weekends, there are Saturday Farmer’s Market and Sunday Antique Market going on where you can do more shopping.

For a cosmopolitan market, I think St. Lawrence Market is really nice. The place is clean and well-maintained, and the layout of the market is not too cramped in-between vendors (at least on the upper level. On the lower level, the space is a bit smaller), making exploring the market an enjoyable experience. If you’re a tourist or a local who is looking for a ready-to-eat food, there are plenty of choices available at the market. Western options such as meat sandwiches, cured meats, cheese, pizza and fresh seafood to name a few are easy to find but international cuisines are also available such as Chinese food, Greek food and French desserts.

One notable vendor is Buster’s Sea Cove, one of the legendary institutions in Toronto that has been selling the freshest and most delectable seafood inside the market since its flagship opening in 1992. Their house special—the East Coast Lobster Roll—is apparently a crowd’s favorite and ended up making my friend joining the long line in front of the counter to order one to try. 

East Coast Lobster Roll with Salad $25.03 | 7/10

Their East Coast Lobster Roll with salad is served with pickles and a slice of lemon. The chopped up lobster meat is served cold on a grilled bun. The lobster meat is fresh and seasoned well, but I personally think the meat was chopped up too much. I think I just prefer bigger chunks of lobster meat on my lobster roll in general. But overall, it was alright. 

If you want to avoid the crowd, maybe go during odd hours like I did. I went there around 3 pm on a Saturday and the place was not super crowded. There were still a good number of people in the market so you can definitely still experience the market vibe. 

 

St. Lawrence Market

Address:
Farmer’s Market / South Market
The Market Lot
Front & Jarvis | Front & Church | Jarvis & Wellington
St. Lawrence Hall
The Market Lot | Front & Jarvis

Telephone: +1 416-392-7219

Hours:
South Market
Tuesday to Friday 9am-7pm | Saturday 7am-5pm | Sunday 10am-5pm | Closed on Mondays
Farmer's Market
Saturday 5am-3pm

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Gooderham Flatiron Building

Gooderham Building (or Gooderham “Flatiron” Building) is a wedge-like shaped structure occupying the same triangular land as the Berczy Park. The unique design of the building earned it the nickname of Toronto’s Flatiron Building, reminiscent of the famous Flatiron Building in New York. But compared to New York’s 22-story structure, Gooderham Building only comprised of 5-story made out of redbrick. The building was actually built in 1892—10 years earlier than the New York’s Flatiron Building—by architect David Roberts Jr. for the office of Gooderham & Worts, the largest manufacturer of distilled spirits in Canada during the 1830s. 

Other than its unique shape, Gooderham Building is also well-known for its trompe l’oeil Flatiron Mural on the back wall by renowned Canadian artist Derek Michael Besant. The mural facing the Berczy Park was commissioned by the city in 1980 and depicts a canvas with windows façade of a building painted on it. There are four nails painted on the fluttering edges of the the canvas, creating an illusion that the canvas is being nailed to the façade of the Gooderham building.

Today, Gooderham “Flatiron” Building is one of Toronto’s most well-known structure with the skyscrapers of the Financial District and CN Tower (from certain angles) towering in the background.

 

Gooderham "Flatiron" Building

Address: 49 Wellington St E, Toronto, ON M5E 1C9, Canada

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Berczy Park

Berczy Park is a small triangular park in downtown Toronto located between Wellington, Front and Scott streets. The park is named after Willam Berczy, a German-born architect, surveyor and writer who’s often considered as one of the founder of modern Toronto. 

In 2015, the park was renovated for the first time after its opening in 1980. The $7.2 million renovation was commissioned to landscape architects Claude Cormier + Associés of Montreal and the process took two years before the park was reopened again in Spring 2017.

Adopting a more playful theme, in the center of the park, you can find a large two-tiered fountain with dog sculptures around and on it that are sprouting water from their mouths towards center of the fountain. Surrounding the fountain are grassy berms, garden beds and park benches where you can sit, relax and enjoy the view. There’s also a total of 27 dog and one cat sculptures that are placed around the park. And if it’s not obvious by now, the park is dog friendly. They even have a ground level trough that provide drinking water for real dogs. Berczy Park is perfect place for dog owners, Torontonians and tourists alike to enjoy a little bit of green oasis in the middle of the city. 

 

Berczy Park

Address: 35 Wellington St E, Toronto, ON M5E 1C6, Canada

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