The Lucky Penny General Store & Cafe

Cute place, but awful service + their ice cream scooping skills are potentially the worst in the city. The urge to offer advice will set in, but don’t waste your time, go somewhere else.

Cute store, lots of stuff, organic local produce.
But look it I don’t look forward to paying 20 dollars for a sandwich and a salad. I can get a mountain of food for that price, and I get it on an actual plate. The food is good, but not that good.
A chicken Caesar is 17 dollars I’ve had cheaper better salads at steak restaurants.
But, there’s no little options in this neighborhood.

Cute. Cute cute cute.
Olde time-​y general store with all of your needs, plus bagels, breads, pastries, sandwiches and nice knickknacks.
I enjoyed a toasted sesame bagel from here yesterday, and I’m probably going to pop in again this morning. A great one stop shop!
Cute. cute cute cute.

Great shop, a bit of everything. Excellent coffee, chicken panini is fantastic and I can do my grocery shopping. Oh, and I know the owner, she’s the best thing about the place.

Keywords:
Cute. Store. Steak. Trout Salad. Croque Monsiuer. Coffee. Peaches. Bagels. Sandwiches. Toilet Paper. Milk. Kindness. Affability. Steadfast. Sundries. Hot sauce. Ribs. Did I say cute and did I say bagels?
This General store, café, produce stand fills a need in the nabe (I just fulfilled a Unilocal cliché with that phrase), and living around the corner all my sundry problems are solved!

The Lucky Penny us a great little corner store near Trinity Bellwoods Park. They sell a variety of tasty pre-​made food, including salads, baked goods, and sandwiches, along with a nice small selection of groceries, including fresh produce, meat, and cheese. They even serve ice cream and coffee and have a selection of kitchen essentials. Of course you do pay a bit of a price premium shopping at a smaller place, but the staff is very friendly and the products are high quality, including a decent amount of locally sourced items. If you are in the area you should definitely stop in.

Great little neighbourhood spot! They have really settled into the space and have a nice selection of prepared and fresh foods. They sell a yummy organic green juice that I buy a lot. Nice patio and recently veggies and herbs for sale outside in the front. Coffee is so so. Sammys are great as are the salads. Friendly service. A neighbourhood gem!

I’m surprised by the negative reviews for Lucky Penny because after my first visit, I was smitten. I think they must have made some improvements since they opened because I had a great time.
First off — their patio is amazing. Filled with deck chairs, side tables and huge umbrellas, it was only half-​full on a Saturday in the summer so we had plenty of space. My boyfriend got the grilled cheese sandwich which he said was one of the best he’d ever had. (I tasted it and I think the secret ingredient might just be butter.) I got a donut and an iced coffee and both were great. I think it’s become a neighbourhood staple as I saw a lot of families dropping by to get ice cream. It added to the charm of the place.
So overall, I really look forward to going back. The prices weren’t cheap but pretty much on par with a similar place like that in the city (i.e. Mabels). I did notice that they sell Glory Hole Donuts for cheaper than at the actual location so their mark-​up can’t be too insane.
Stop by and decide for yourself.

Sorry can only afford two stars on this one. Eagerly awaited the opening but it was very disappointing.
The good side is there is a really great selection of some of my favourite food products, San M tomatoes to name just one.
The bad side is the price. The mark up is insane, I don’t know how crazy their overhead is but I’m not going to the poor house to pay off this reno/​mortgage.
We ordered one coffee and one mocha, they offer one size only which is fairly small, and while they both tasted fine, it left a bad taste in my mouth to pay almost $ 9 dollars for average coffees.
I think it could be really popular if they make it more wallet friendly. And next time Costco runs out of San Marzanos I might fork out, because I had sleepless nights without them in my pantry.

There are some really good things and really bad things about this place. On the positive side, the Lucky Penny carries Glory Hole donuts and Blackbird Baking breads. They have a good assortment of cheeses, cured meats and beverages in their fridge, as well as some fancy canned goods.
The real downer of this place is the food. I have purchased sandwiches three times. The first time, I got a veggie sandwich that was totally stale. I gave them another try and bought a smoked salmon bagel, which was totally great. But then I got another one, and it was totally stale — the bagel was at least two days old. The sandwiches are pre-​made and sitting in a fridge, but are not in plastic wrap or anything like that. Maybe that’s why they get stale. But I really don’t think it’s cool to give me a super old, super stale bagel.