ottawa foodies

Heard that Hartman's YIG (Bank and Somerset) will be changing over at the end of the month. New National Grocer brand coming in? Who knows...

I welcome the alleged change as i've always found Hartman's to be a particularly dreadful version of the loblaws kind. Maybe the new place will have windows!?! Yippee

The rumour I heard has Loblaws taking over.

I don't know about Loblaws taking over so soon after the Isabella teardown/rebuild, and so near, geographically, but I'd definitely heard there was a remodel coming. Between the Isabella reboot and Sobeys, it's gonna take a bit more than a swipe of lipstick to make Hartman's hog remotely attractive again. The place is a dump.

Maybe I'm just being cynical but I've been living downtown for 27 years and Hartman's has always been a dump. Although it was much dumpier before they renovated a few years ago. I welcome Sobey's although I have a love/hate relationship with the place and I would love to see more non-Loblaws grocery stores downtown.

A bit of Hartman's trivia: Regular shoppers may have noticed a lovely stone façade right at the corner of Bank and Somerset - there used to be a restaurant along that segment of the store. The resto closed late 1988/early 1989 when Hartman's took over the space and incorporated it with the grocery store. When you enter Hartman's from Bank and pass the produce, prepared foods, and check-out you will arrive at the canned foods and meat section. There used to be a single-screen movie theatre there and when it closed in the early 90s Hartman's took over the space gutting the interior and incorporating it with the rest of the store. So that would probably explain the lack of windows there. Also probably due to the close proximity to the condos/apartments next door.

Actually, right on that corner there used to be a Bank of Montreal. On the north west corner there used to be a Royal Bank. Both long gone.

Actually, before that there were wide open fields.

Loblaw will be closing 52 stores over the next year: www.cbc.ca

It is going to be a Loblaws Banner of some kind

The YIG (Your Independent Grocers) stores have a loose affiliation with Loblaws, and I believe that affiliation gives Loblaws first right of refusal when an YIG decides to close down.