Park Grocery

– Hi, I’m Nina from The GoWylde Team and I’m standing outside Park Grocery – Deli & Bar which is on the corner of London and Woolwich. This is one of Guelph‘s newest restaurants. It features roasted chicken, smoked meat sandwiches, salads, soups and also has a variety of local beers and cider. Why don’t we go inside and meet the president of the company Neighborhood Group, Court? Hi guys, so I’m inside Park Grocery with Court and I have some questions to ask him.

Q1: So Court, what is the history of the name Park Grocery?

Court – Park Grocery is actually the name of the first business that was in this very location. Dating back to 1890, when the Waters family had moved to Guelph and they opened up a general store called Park Grocery. So it’s had a lot of different iterations recently, all the way through the various decades and we decided to honour that tradition and rename it Park Grocery. It’s not a grocery store but more of a deli and bar with a lot of smoked items and everything else, but just a great community joint for people to come and hang out.

Nina – Okay great.

Q2: I know that Park Grocery and The Neighborhood Group is really big on minimizing their carbon footprint. What are some examples?

Court – A great example we have is that we’re a carbon-neutral facility. We buy carbon offsets through indigenous offsetting groups, called Annwan, that’s local to Guelph here. We also do composting, all recyclable and compostable materials used for take-out, we minimize our food waste and obviously using a lot of local products to minimize transportation.

Nina – Oh nice!

Q3:  What would you say is your favorite meal here?

Court – Oh! Favorite meal? A favorite meal has to be the smoked brisket.

Nina – Okay, excellent

Court – Yeah, we smoke it for about 12 hours, put a really awesome rub on it. Throw it in the smoker. Comes out in the morning and then we just slice it up to order, finish off with a flat-top and it is dynamite!

Nina – Nice, I’ll have a try that. Well, thank you so much, Court for taking the time and letting us come in & let us talk about your great business.

Court – It’s been my pleasure