After an unexpectedly successful opening weekend that began on Canada Day, Catherine McGregor and her partners in the brand new Craig’s Cookie shop on Victoria Street made the decision to close their doors for a breather on Tuesday.
“This weekend was absolutely incredible,” McGregor tells The Local. “We have genuinely been delightfully overwhelmed by the reaction and the response to the place. We had to shut down for a day just to restock.”
The line-ups on Canada Day were long and constant, often snaking down Victoria Street. Even at Simcoe Park, as patriotic revellers took part in the festivities, there was much buzz about the decadent treats available just a few blocks away.
The new venture is a partnership between McGregor, who was a member of the Shaw Festival ensemble from 1997 to 2017, Danny Woods, and a couple of silent, behind the scenes contributors. Just as important, though, is the partnership between McGregor and Craig Pike, the “Craig” in Craig’s Cookies and another former Shaw actor.
In 2012, McGregor played Mrs. Tarleton and Pike portrayed John Brown in Shaw Festival’s production of Misalliance.
“We became close friends during that show,” she says. “Our friendship has continued since then. When Craig left Shaw to move back to Toronto, he began making cookies using his grandmother’s recipe and selling them on his bike to pay his rent. I got a phone call from him at 7:00 am one day, asking me if he should open up a shop.”
That was about five years ago. Not knowing much about business, or even cookies for that matter, McGregor listened as a supportive friend to Pike’s ideas and realized he had a really good sense of exactly what he wanted to do with his cookie shop.
“He wanted to make it a bit more than just about the cookies,” she marvels. “It was about inclusivity and diversity for him, making everyone feel welcome. So I encouraged him to open the shop.”
Pike soon set up shop at a Toronto location and Craig’s Cookies was an instant hit. In the ensuing years, four more Toronto locations followed, and Pike opened one in his hometown of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Four months ago, McGregor and Wood decided that Niagara-on-the-Lake would be an ideal location for number seven.
“He and I had been talking about the possibility of doing this here for some time,” she says. “It seemed like an absolutely perfect fit. The fact is, Craig had been bringing these cookies to the green room at the Shaw, and also to house parties for years. There’s some kind of poetry in this coming back to Niagara.”
Add in the fact that McGregor saw the biggest spike in sales this weekend every time the audience flowed out of the Royal George Theatre after performances, and one could make the case that Craig's Cookies is the “unofficial” cookie of the Shaw Festival.
Since leaving Shaw in 2017, McGregor has concentrated on her work in film and television, and even became a motorcycle instructor with Toronto’s Rider Training Institute. Opening the new bakery is something that will allow her to channel her creative energy into something fun and enjoyable in between acting engagements.
“There tends to be more space between those jobs than there is between shows at the Shaw Festival,” says the Newmarket native. “This is another element in me finding out how I can use the skills I’ve developed over the last 25 years as an actor. It’s really an extension of the hustling I’ve been doing my entire life.”
Ironically, McGregor says she’s never been much of a baker. In fact, because she is afflicted with celiac disease, she can’t even eat most of the cookies she offers in her shop. There are, however, some gluten-free options available each day.
McGregor will be back on the stage in two weeks, preparing to take on the title role as the operator of a house of ill-repute in the Foster Festival’s August production of Jenny’s House of Joy. She’ll have to pull herself away from the cookie shop most days, but is confident that everything will go smoothly.
“We have such a great staff, and I’m so especially proud of all the young people we have working for us,” McGregor affirms, including her own son, Eli Mezon in that group. “I think they all understand what we’re trying to do. We want people to come in and have a really good experience here. We want to connect with people here.”
And she credits her partners and the excellent full-time adult staff for keeping things clipping along and maintaining that fun, friendly atmosphere all weekend long.
When The Local visited Monday, there was a constant stream of happy people coming in to check out the goods. Maria Rodriguez of Fonthill knew all about Craig’s Cookies from her time working as a caregiver in Toronto. She could hardly contain her excitement.
“I would go to Craig’s Cookies frequently,” said a beaming Rodriguez. “I enjoyed all the flavours, the hospitality and the very open, accepting environment. I’m very, very excited that they’ve opened up here. I will be here frequently.”
McGregor says Pike worked with her and her partners over the last four months to ensure the opening weekend went smoothly. He was in NOTL for Canada Day and was thrilled and excited to see the reaction.
"All of these locations are like his children,” says McGregor. “This one is a bit different, though, because really, we are independent owners and operators. He was here to help us and nurture us, but now he has to let us go.”
Like Pike, who uses much of his profits from his stores to fund his creative pursuits in both theatre and music, McGregor has no plans to give up her acting career to concentrate on cookies only.
“I have the Foster play next month, and a movie coming out at Christmas, too,” she says. “As long as I can learn my lines while I’m baking, I’ll keep going with that. Acting is my first love and will always be. But this allows me to put my passions into something I love in between.”