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Inside The Gutted Out Shell Of What Would Become ‘Finch’s Market’ In Strathcona

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by Andrew Morrison | I remember being especially excited when I found out that West Pender’s cult sandwich shop Finch’s was opening their second location at the end of my block in Strathcona. My wife Michelle first turned me on to their ridiculously good sandwiches – truly mythic things made with blue-brie, pear, walnut, prosciutto, balsamic, olive oil and salt and pepper on fresh baguette – a few years previous. If you look at the beast below you can probably understand how it was a difficult thing to walk past the construction site at 501 East Georgia and not peek my head in to see how progress was coming along. I mean, c’mon…

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These shots were taken exactly five years ago today when I caught co-owner Jamie Smith up to his eyeballs with the job. It would be a long time – eight months (a few days before Christmas, 2012) – until the new Finch’s Market would serve its first sandwich and pull its first espresso. To see scenes from that welcome day, click here.

  • Finch's Market while it was under construction at 501 East Georgia in Strathcona
  • Interior of Finch's while U-Go-2 Store was being gutted
  • Jamie Smith, the owner of Finch's Market, in the midst of construction in the summer of 2012
  • The exterior of U-Go-2 Store before the Finch's transformation
  • The exterior of U-Go-2 Store before the Finch's transformation
  • U-Go-2 Store false walls removed
  • Old windows revealed (previously behind a false wall)
  • Gutting and cleaning in the wake of U-Go-2 Store
  • Original support beams revealed during Finch's construction
  • Entrance to the kitchen of the future Finch's
  • Sidewalk level frosted window detail
  • Finch's Market | 501 East Georgia in Strathcona
  • Detritus collection | Finch's Market | 501 East Georgia in Strathcona
  • Finch's Market
  • Looking west to the new Finch's on East Georgia St.
  • Ghost sign on the side of the building | 501 East Georgia in Strathcona
  • Jamie Smith, the action man | Finch's Market | 501 East Georgia in Strathcona

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