Originally published February 13, 2025 in Toronto Life
The sort-of secret: Alice Marie Bakery and Coffee, a shoebox-size spot that specializes in French baked goods made with local ingredients
You may have heard of it if: You were a fan of the sold-out Alice Marie pop-ups at White Lily and Soul Chocolate
But you probably haven’t tried it because: You haven’t been strolling the East Chinatown strip lately.
After the popular east-end brunch joint Saturday Dinette closed in 2017, Leslievillians shed a tear every time they walked past the boarded-up building at the corner of Gerrard and Logan. But, when then–White Lily Diner pastry chef Rachelle Cornish and her husband, Aaron Hubley, were looking for somewhere to open a café last spring, they fell in love with the vacant spot.
“We walked by it a million times,” says Cornish. “I always thought it would make a really cute bakery. It’s so tiny, but I love the light, all the windows and that it’s a corner spot—it’s kind of romantic in that sense. But there was nothing in there—no kitchen, no countertops. It was literally an empty box.”
The couple had been throwing Alice Marie pop-ups at White Lily since 2023. “We just put up posters and turned the hostess stand around,” Cornish says of their first “storefront.” At the time, she was the maestro behind the Michelin-recommended diner’s baked goods, the expansion of their famous doughnut offerings and their beloved Cruller Fridays (IYKYK). She honed her French baking chops at Fol Epi in Victoria and as head baker at the lauded Tivoli Road Bakery in Melbourne, Australia.
After landing the space, Cornish and Hubley—himself a chef and barista who worked at Pilot Coffee Roasters, Soul Chocolate and the now-closed Riverside location of Boxcar Social—got to work renovating on a shoestring budget with their hired crew (a.k.a. their family and friends). “It was an all-hands-on-deck reno,” says Hubley. Named after Cornish’s grandmother, Alice Marie Bakery and Coffee opened this past July, and word spread quickly about the twee, casual spot with next-level pastries, cookies and cakes. There are only a couple of tables and a few stools at a window-facing counter, as well as a bench outside where people can scarf down their treats during warmer weather.
“The laptop crowd gave up pretty quickly,” says Hubley, which is just fine with them—they’re more interested in fostering a community space for making IRL connections. To that end, the bright and airy space is giving cozy grandmacore—the mismatched dishes were all sourced from vintage shops, and there’s a small shelf of goods for sale from Toronto makers, including custom cortado cups by ceramicist Chloe Begg.
But the real draw here is Cornish’s stellar baking. “It’s all about classic flavours done really, really well,” she says. Regular offerings include favourites from the pop-up days like a cheddar-chive scone ($5); honey, oat and chocolate-chunk cookies ($3.50); and thick squares of Deep’n Nostalgic chocolate cake ($12), a haute take on a certain McCain staple.
There’s also a rotating salad and sandwich: think caesar pasta salad with brussels sprouts, parmesan and prosciutto ($14.50) or spicy Calabrese salami with roasted red pepper tapenade on house-made bread ($15.50). Feature cakes and tarts available by the slice also change regularly to make the most of seasonal flavours and produce—one month, it’s lemon coconut chiffon; the next, olive oil semolina cake crusted in pine nuts. Cornish and Hubley source as much as possible from local purveyors, including White Lily Farms and 100km Foods. Even their butter is from Golden Dawn, one of Canada’s last indie butter churners. And everything is made with organic cane sugar and organic flour.
Cornish often relives her pop-up days with limited-edition, pre-order holiday offerings (for sale on the Alice Marie website) like a Christmas cookie box, a Valentine’s Day Black Forest tart and—coming soon for St. Patrick’s Day—a giant cookie inspired by the Girl Guides’ Thin Mints, featuring mint filling piled atop a chocolate biscuit and coated in dark chocolate.
To drink, there’s a full menu of classic espresso beverages made with beans from Canadian roasters like Subtext Coffee Roasters, Bows Coffee Roasters and Quietly Coffee. There are also teas from Pippins and Silk Road Tea, Soul Chocolate’s hot chocolate, and fresh fruit sodas.
Grandma Alice Marie—who started teaching Cornish to bake as soon as she could hold a spoon—passed away years ago, but Cornish thinks she’d approve of her namesake spot. “She would absolutely love it,” Cornish says. “She’d come here and hang out with all her friends and enjoy a piece of cake—and then she’d probably tell me we need more seats.”
Alice Marie, alicemarie.ca, 807 Gerrard St. E., open Thursday and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
