Specialty food retailers are expanding in the Edmonton region with boutique-type experiences that, in at least two cases, are backed by established companies with cash and big ambition.
L'OCA Quality Market opened its second location in less than a year on Jan. 31 after its flagship shop on Baseline Road in Sherwood Park went live last May. The new outpost is within the former home of Andy's Valleyview IGA in the Parkview neighbourhood.
"(Between) opening the two stores in 266 days and and trying to organize the supply chain and rally a couple hundred staff and start up restaurants and grocery stores, L'OCA consumes a fair bit of my time," Ben Cochrane, a partner in L'OCA, told Taproot. "I don't sleep a lot."
Cochrane is also a senior vice-president at Go Auto, a car dealership business founded and headquartered in Edmonton that now has more than 60 locations in Canada and the United States. Some of his colleagues at Go Auto are personal investors in L'OCA, including the Priestner family, whose Mike Priestner founded the Mike Priestner Auto Group in 1996, which became Go Auto in 2008. The family has generational business expertise in the auto industry and supports local charities, including $1 million for Boyle Street Community Services in 2022.
From day one, the investors in L'OCA have aimed to scale. "We didn't want to dip our toes into the market, build that very large store out in Sherwood Park and then stop there," Cochrane said. "We wanted to do food differently, and with that, do it everywhere."
L'OCA, which is Italian for "the goose," is built on the "old world tradition" of European markets, Cochrane said. The concept was also influenced by farmers' markets and the viral Erewhon, an uber-pricey grocer from Los Angeles — all done with "an Albertan touch." Both locations have restaurant concepts, though the new one is based more around a service counter than the location in Sherwood Park. Another difference between the two is that Parkview, which also serves the neighbourhood of Crestwood, has filled the void left by the IGA, which was beloved by Edmonton's Jewish community for its robust selection of kosher foods and sponsorship of events. L'OCA has retained most of Andy's staff and all of its kosher inventory, and even added to it.
"We've actually expanded on what they they were offering," Cochrane said. "We have the full selection of everything they had before and now (even) more shelf space. We've worked very closely with the community there. We've been listening to what they want to see and brought a lot of stuff in."
Similar to the 22,000-square-foot Parkview store, the 48,000-square-foot L'OCA in Sherwood Park replaced a former store (in that case a Rona). Cochrane said Sherwood Park offered some "breathing room" as a first outpost compared to Edmonton's more saturated grocery market — even if he announced the Parkview plans the same month that L'OCA 1.0 opened.
L'OCA isn't alone as a specialty food retailer that's charting ambitious growth in the Edmonton region. In 2023, the first Ribeye Butcher Shop, which is one of several new-ish butcher shops in Edmonton, opened in St. Albert, and by last year the company launched its seventh location in Calgary. In between these bookends, Ribeye has opened four shops offering specialty meat and prepared foods in the Edmonton region, with locations in Manning, Windermere, Terra Losa, and Sherwood Park. It has a further store in Airdrie.
Like L'OCA, none of Ribeye's shops are currently located in Edmonton's core, but that may change, co-owner Sam Gundy told Taproot.
"We have chosen the sites we have because we have great relationships with the landlord already through associated businesses," Gundy said. "That being said, we are looking at the core in Edmonton and Calgary … I think that there is a tremendous opportunity in downtown Edmonton or downtown Calgary. It doesn't have to be 18(,000) or 20,000 square feet, which is what the Mahogany (in Calgary) store is. We can do a little micro store for 900 square feet, and still pack it with all the great products that we serve at all the other stores."
L'OCA Quality Market recently opened a store in Parkview, its second location in less than a year. Ribeye Butcher Shop has grown from one shop to seven in roughly 16 months, with five of those locations in the Edmonton region. (LinkedIn)
Gundy's associated businesses include The Canadian Brewhouse and its portfolio of companies, such as The Banquet, PlantLife Cannabis, and Tesoro, a grocery venture made with the Italian Bakery. Gundy said the group has expertise in scaling businesses and takes care of human resources, marketing, financial reporting, and more. This allowed Gundy, who calls himself a "meat geek," to focus on the quality of products and customer experience as the Ribeye chain expanded.
"I believe we opened seven shops in 16 months," Gundy said. "I was working seven days a week with the general managers and managers and all the staff at the stores and getting them open one by one. It was busy, but it was fun."
All Ribeye locations offer a uniform selection of almost entirely Canadian products so that customers know what to expect no matter where they shop. Still, Gundy said each shop has a personal touch because staff build relationships with customers. What's different about them is that stock levels of each product vary based on what sells where, he said. In Manning Town Centre, for example, people love cuts used for smoking. In Windermere, lamb is more popular than at any other store. In Terra Losa, customers flock to grab-and-go prepared options.
Gundy said he doesn't think of Ribeye as a "premium" option because, while a steak may cost more there than at a national grocer, it's still not priced as a luxury item, and the extra expense is worth it because many products are from Alberta.
Price is something Cochrane thinks of as well. L'OCA has the departments one expects from a grocer, though products on the shelves run from meat raised outside Whitecourt to rare imports. Cochrane said it's delicate to offer high-end goods. "Groceries are interesting. Strictly speaking (from a) business perspective, there's a massive price sensitivity for a lot of people," he said.
Looking ahead, both L'OCA and Ribeye plan to continue expanding, perhaps nationally, though neither has settled on its next location. Even though both companies are structured as chains that plan to expand, both owners rely on the support local ideal — which is gaining momentum now that U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed, then paused, a 25% tariff on Canadian goods.
"It's becoming more important to support local, to support your neighbour, to support your community, your city, your province, and your country," Gundy said. "I don't think we're going to get affected by the tariffs (much), because everything we buy is Canadian. Packaging could get interesting, because we do import some of that."