Urban Fresh Produce

Urban Fresh Produce: The Avocado Has Spoken!During the Pesky Plague, I battled boredom and frustration by elevating normal tasks into quests – long walks through the city in search of the perfect pastry, the best steak, the cheese of dreams and other heavily calorific grails. But since man cannot live solely in track pants with expandable waists, the need for a reliable green grocer became urgent.Toronto has many – so many that I needed a testing device by which to measure an emporium’s trustworthiness, and what better tool than that most secretive potential betrayer of trust - the deceptive avocado! How firm is too firm? How soft is too soft? And since whipping out your Swiss Army knife and cutting them open in the store is generally frowned upon, the test must be done by feel alone.My selection success rate was a dismal 50% and repeated practice was not making perfect. Asking the produce guys in various supermarkets improved things slightly but all too often I was still confronting crunchy avocado bits (or black squishiness) on my dinner plate.Then, in a moment of serendipitous good fortune, I turned left instead of right while leaving my cheese store and wandered into Urban Fresh Produce at the St. Lawrence Market. That was 352 avocados ago and still they have not picked a bad one. Every Thursday, Fiona or Du, my avocado gurus, greet me with, “This one for tonight, this one for Saturday and this one for Monday.”Urban Fresh is not one of the Market’s fruit and vegetable behemoths. It’s rather small but its variety matches and exceeds that of much larger sources. For example in the past month, I’ve found albino strawberries, golden raspberries, Little Gem lettuces, English garden peas, red and white radishes, heirloom tomatoes, Georgia corn-on-the-cob (so creamy) and weirdly wonderful mangoes – and more. Fiona will even text when something special is available. That’s service.I have three produce purveyors essentially across the street. Urban Fresh is 14,000 Fitbit steps away. And yes, I pay a little more. I do so without complaint. After all, the avocado has spoken!

Not an expert at selecting the best watermelons, I bought one a few days ago. Getting overly excited for a tasty watermelon breakfast, I carefully cut it in half. To my disappointment, it appeared to be overripe and really mushy inside and tasted so unpalatable that I had to throw it out completely.I would have returned it right away if only the shop was opened. It was a Sunday, therefore, I had to wait until Tuesday to explain the situation. I did take a picture of the mushy watermelon.After showing the picture of said watermelon to the lady at the counter and explained why I did not bring it with me, she happily selected a watermelon as a gift for the ordeal. The gesture made me so grateful and appreciative for their understanding and remedy.

Extremely polite and friendly staff. Anthony and Lewis are always helpful and this is also one of the only places that have a reliable source of edible flowers downtown

Their produce is always fresh and they provide excellent customer service. Have been a customer now for many years. If you are in the St. Laurence area, this place is a must.

Their produce is of excellent quality! They also usually have beautiful bouquets which is always a nice treat!

My fave green grocer. Fantastic quality, selection and the best service from friendly knowledgeable staff.

So awesome, they came trough and fulfilled all of my fruit platter and veggie platter fantasies!

They have the best guacamole it’s so good! Great customer service as well. Keep it up!

Amazing & fresh produce. Excellent customer service each and everytime. Always a wonderful experience shopping at Urban Fresh!! You won't be disappointed!