This local Toronto bar created their Bloordale Village street out of gingerbread, and it may be the most Toronto Christmas display you've ever seen.
The massive gingerbread streetscape is on display at Penny's on Bloor Street West and took over six weeks, 150 hours and 15 pounds of gingerbread to make.
Lori Steuart
The display features six local shops, including Hasty Market, Penny's, Chito's, Anatomica, Caribbean Queen, and Wine Rack. The streetscape also has some iconic nods to Toronto culture, including a white squirrel from Trinity Bellwood's park and a raccoon peeking out of a garbage can.
Lori Steuart
Penny's owner Olivia Jewer and Lori Steuart, a regular at the bar, started the tradition of making gingerbread displays last year during the pandemic and haven't looked back since.
"I wanted to go bigger and better this year, and that's exactly what we did," Jewer told Narcity.
Jewer and Steuart say their display couldn't fit through the door last year so going bigger definitely took some planning.
Lori Steuart
The pair started planning on November 1, and after cutting their wooden base to fit through the door, Steuart noticed how long their medium was going to be and came up with the idea to do a streetscape of the bar and include other "institutional" businesses on the street.
"We wanted to pick some of the well-loved and well-known places on our north side of the street. There was a bit of motivation to make it hyper-realistic, and we realized we're not pros, so why don't we keep it whimsical and fun."
This year the longtime friends also enlisted the help of another bar regular, Lenny Olin who put in about 30 hours of work on the project using marzipan to help create the interiors of the storefronts.
Lori Steuart
Jewer and Steuart put in about 60 hours each, and for a few weeks, Steuart says her house was like a gingerbread factory.
The completely edible streetscape cost about $200 to make with some recycled materials from last year and will be on display until January.