A food hall that has been serving up gourmet eats to people filtering through Toronto’s busiest shopping mall for almost a decade has just permanently shuttered.
Saks Food Hall at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre was one of only two hubs of its kind, offering pizza, salads, sweets and more alongside high-end groceries such as meats, cheeses, produce and breads.
It was a unique offering that came as part of Saks Fifth Avenue’s first foray into Canada, debuting when the American department store chain took over 169,000+ square feet of the downtown mall’s Hudson’s Bay flagship in 2016.
Owned and operated by local grocery chain Pusateri’s and linked to the city’s PATH network, the food hall concept was promising. But, like many business endeavours, it took a huge hit during the pandemic.
So sad to walk through these once bustling corridors. 😪
— ✌🌻Geri❤Mom🇨🇦Mimi 🌻✌ #onevoicematters (@HippieGenes) October 13, 2020
The closure of not only many fellow PATH businesses over COVID, but also the only other Saks Food Hall (in Etobicoke’s CF Sherway Gardens) in early 2023, seemed to suggest a similar fate was on the horizon for the Queen and Yonge location.
Pusateri’s subsequently closing down its prominent Yorkville store in early 2024 and launching bankruptcy proceedings a few months later served as the unfortunate nail in the coffin.
The CF Eaton Centre Saks Food Hall looked to be closing up shop soon after Pusateri’s bankruptcy announcement. Photo by Becky Robertson in November 2024.
At the time the bankruptcy was announced in August, Pusateri’s did state that its flagship on Avenue Road would be staying open, along with its presence in Saks Food Hall, though that would be henceforth operating “in a limited capacity as food service-only.”
But, shoppers began to notice the hall emptying out soon after, taking to social media to ask if anyone knew what was happening to the eerily quiet space.
A post to a local community Facebook group in November 2024 showed concern over the seemingly empty food hall.
The scaled-back version was set to offer coffee, snacks and pizza Mondays to Fridays only, a sales associate told blogTO during a visit in the fall, but the area was looking progressively more abandoned as the retail component wound down.
Pusateri’s confirmed to blogTO on Tuesday — following Retail Insider breaking the closure — that the Eaton Centre location permanently closed this month, a decision stemming from the family-owned brand’s “simplification strategy consolidating to one location at our historical flagship at Avenue Road and Lawrence.”
Despite the retail component closing in the fall, Pusateri’s said it had planned to continue operating in the space in a limited food-service only capacity.
As for what’s to come of the vast lower-level space, a representative for Saks Fifth Avenue says the retailer is “evaluating new opportunities to best use the space and looks forward to continuing to serve our customers at the Saks Fifth Avenue Toronto store.”
Pusateri’s, meanwhile, remains focused on serving its customers as “a neighbourhood shopping destination for top quality foods.”
