Grounds for appeal

A corner store is fighting for the right to sell coffee amid a licensing dispute, all while the city weighs zoning changes to let such businesses flourish

- MANUELA VEGA

Yana Miriev says she bought an espresso machine after the city confirmed that her business licence allowed her to serve coffee.

A small shop nestled among rows of houses in Toronto’s west end offers customers locally sourced groceries, plus espresso drinks, matcha lattes and cookies to go. But an anonymous tip about a zoning violation is threatening to put it out of business.

Bylaw officers have told Finch Store that its location at 42 Dewson St., near Ossington Avenue and College Street, is in a residential zone and doesn’t have permission to prepare and serve food or drinks. Owner Yana Miriev, however, said she purchased the shop in 2022 with a permit to do so, and she needs to sell coffee in order to keep the business afloat.

“If the coffee machine is taken away, there’s no way to keep the store,” she said.

It’s a zoning spat that comes as the city is aiming to make just this type of small-scale business in residential zones permissible.

Consultations on the zoning change are taking place throughout June. But the city says that, until those changes are made, staff must enforce the rules as they exist.

According to documents shared with the Star, Miriev asked the licence and permit issuing office last May if she could serve coffee with the licence she had — a grocery store licence with a permit for refreshments — and they confirmed she could.

She said it was only after she subsequently purchased an espresso machine and hired someone to train staff on how to use it that a bylaw officer came into the store and told her the city received an anonymous complaint about the coffee machine.