Brother and sister Tina and Calvin Su have an interesting, feel-good story of how they started in business together. Calvin, with a background in economics, had been working at Fed Ex for years, while his sister Tina was perfecting her French pastry skills in France and at the Cordon Bleu in Ottawa. Calvin was disillusioned with his job and joined forces with his sister to open their cute shop together at 3467 Yonge Street, north of Lawrence and south of York Mills in Toronto in 2011.
Butter Avenue is designed in good taste – clean, modern and understated. Although Tina honed her skills in French Macarons she also does some fine French pasties as well as canele, croissants and quiche. Macarons are the specialty here and there is usually between 12-15 flavours on display at any one time. The flavours rotate from a roster of fifty selections. They have fabulous and unique choices, not like the the basic ones you see around.
Lychee-strawberry, maple bacon, raspberry marshmallow, earl grey, blueberry cheesecake, toasted sesame, lemon poppyseed, rose jam, lavender and so on. They also offer little mini macarons that are great for entertaining or when you don’t want to feel guilty. They use no preservatives and try and find the best ingredients, like chocolate from France, and matcha powder from Japan. The displays of all the pastry is beautiful to behold.
To drink, Butter Avenue offers a large variety of loose tea leaves. I tried an apple almond flavour that was red in colour and very tasty. They also serve espresso drinks made with Social coffee and tea beans. I also tried one of their small quiches –mine had mushrooms and goat cheese. It had a nice flaky crust and the filling had a kick to it. On the weekends they offer a tea experience, where you can taste a bit of Paris and Tokyo together. It is a set menu with twelve kinds of desserts and savoury items, along with coffee and tea selections. This is served at $57.50 per person. Make sure you reserve in advance for this.
They have also opened a second location at Queen near Spadina, with hopes of eventually opening stores all over the US and Asia.
They focus on corporate sales and pop-up shops like Holt Renfrew and Lululemon, and private events as well.
They are closed on Monday.
Butter Avenue brings sweet goodness to the neighbourhood and Calvin and Tina are a passionate and dynamic duo.
Recommended.
Happy dining,
Shanea