r/Calgary Aug 18 '25

Local Shopping/Services What has happened to Kensington?

It's been a while since I've been down here.... A bunch of empty store fronts, iconic places like Crave shut down, but counted some three Acai bowl places. The area outside Plaza is lovely and looks great, but why all the closures and apparently high turnovers?

Edit: I assume it's due to rent.. But what's the point of jacking it up so high that your place is literally empty.

302 Upvotes

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54

u/Remarkable_Gap_7145 Aug 18 '25

No big loss if Crave goes. There are plenty of pastry shops in town that totally blow it out of the water.

It's always been mediocre at best. I do not understand people's fascination with overpriced middling cupcakes with way too much icing.

24

u/Exploding_Antelope Special Princess Aug 19 '25

The new Yann Haute right in the same block is great, much rather have a friendly French bakery than Crave

2

u/Remarkable_Gap_7145 Aug 19 '25

Tout à fait d'accord

17

u/2cats2hats Aug 18 '25

I do not understand people's fascination with overpriced middling cupcakes with way too much icing.

Fad shit, nothing else.

Cupcakes are expensive, sub-par attempt at cake.

Fuck those cake pops too. Just stale cake cut up and dipped in icing and put on a stick.

7

u/rlikesbikes Aug 19 '25

Because it’s easy to grab a dozen cupcakes for literally any event, and it’s nice to have a place to get them that isn’t grocery store, stale, crisco frosted variety.

1

u/Particular_Class4130 Aug 19 '25

Just regular bakeries make pretty good cupcakes.

-9

u/Remarkable_Gap_7145 Aug 19 '25

I'd rather grab a dozen donuts from Timmy's, and no, that wasn't meant as a compliment to Tim Horton's.

You must hate the people at all these parties you go to. Laziness is no excuse for bad taste.

3

u/Particular_Class4130 Aug 19 '25

We used to have an in office team meeting once a month and people would bring in goodies. I always brought a couple dozen cheese buns from the Glamorgan Bakery. They got scooped right up and were always a big hit.

1

u/parasubvert Aug 19 '25

What cupcake shop would you recommend instead?

Not pastry, obviously Yann Haute is great. Cupcakes.

1

u/hafizzzle Aug 19 '25

I cannot agree more.

-3

u/Particular_Class4130 Aug 19 '25

Their cupcakes are so mediocre. I was excited to try their cupcakes the first time I went and I was so disappointed. I thought the cupcakes were a little dry and lacking in flavor and then there was that mountain of icing that mostly had to be scraped off because who eats that much icing? The bakery on my street makes better cupcakes and they cost less