Two hands-on stores opened on the Queen-to-Dundas block of Yonge Street in October, six days apart. Nintendo came first on October 17 and LEGO followed on October 23. An egg sandwich counter from Los Angeles is scheduled to join them at the Dundas end on November 5. Since late September, Sankofa Square has been screening a digital artwork by Julien Creuzet every night at 10 p.m., and the program runs until December 20.
Each of them pitches itself as a place to come back to, with demos to try, sets to build or a screening that repeats every night. And the biggest of them opened at the Eaton Centre entrance that faces Queen Street, which has been closed to cars since May 2023.
Two Doors, Six Days Apart
The first was the Nintendo space inside EB Games' flagship at 267 Yonge Street. It opened to the public at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 17. The 1,500-square-foot room is Nintendo's first store-within-a-store in North America, and it has Nintendo Switch 2 hardware, playable demo systems, and a My Mario wood block set sold only in this space, according to the launch announcement on Newswire.
The same release says the room "will continue to evolve alongside Nintendo's latest releases, giving people reasons to return." Stéphan Tétrault, owner and CEO of EB Games Canada, described the thinking in the announcement:
"We believe in creating retail experiences where people can do more than shop - they can play, discover and connect with the brands they love."
Six days later, the LEGO Store opened inside CF Toronto Eaton Centre. Cadillac Fairview's opening notice places it on Level 3 near the Queen Street entrance, next to Athleta, in about 2,637 square feet. The notice says the store follows LEGO's "Retailtainment" design, built around hands-on play and oversized 3D brick models. According to Toronto.com's fall openings roundup, it is LEGO's first downtown Toronto location.
The two stores are about two minutes apart on foot. That is the distance Toronto.com gave between the mall and 267 Yonge.
The Busiest New Door Faces a Construction Site
LEGO's spot near the Queen Street entrance puts it at the mall's south end. Cadillac Fairview calls that concourse "one of the shopping centre's highest-traffic." Out on the street, things look very different. Metrolinx closed Queen Street to vehicles from Bay to Victoria on May 1, 2023, so it could build the Ontario Line's Queen Station. The original estimate was about four and a half years, and pedestrian access to local businesses stayed open throughout. Metrolinx has not published a revised reopening date. Counted from May 2023, the original estimate would end in late 2027.
Underground, the work is still going. In its June 2026 construction update, Metrolinx said station excavation at Queen would continue through the summer and that crews had started building a vent shaft on James Street. It also said the work was being done beside an operating TTC station without disrupting service. The June 9 meeting summary for the Queen Station community liaison committee describes rock excavation at both the west site between Bay and Yonge and the east site between Yonge and Victoria. The east site was next due to begin cavern excavation toward the west shaft.
This changes how you reach the new stores. The 501 Queen streetcar still serves Queen Station on Line 1, but downtown it takes a diversion. According to the TTC's route page, eastbound cars run south on York, east on Adelaide and north on Church back to Queen. Westbound cars use Church, Richmond and York. So anyone coming to the LEGO Store by streetcar walks up from Adelaide or Richmond. Line 1 drops you right at the door.
You can see what's happening underground in person on November 19. Metrolinx is holding an Osgoode and Queen Station open house that evening from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel, 108 Chestnut St. The team will cover tunnelling, future station buildings, new trains and ongoing construction. Details and registration are on the Metrolinx event page.
Eggslut Takes the Dundas End
The LEGO Store sits at the Queen end of the block. At the north end, Eggslut is scheduled to open its second Toronto restaurant at 10 Dundas St. E. on November 5, according to Toronto.com's roundup. The February deal announcement had aimed for early summer, so the counter is arriving months late.
The space is about 1,300 square feet on the ground floor of The Tenor. It faces Dundas Street in a unit that used to be a Wine Rack, as Retail Insider reported in February. Westrich Hospitality holds the brand's exclusive Canadian development rights, and its development lead, Adam Flook, told Retail Insider the format is "more grab-and-go, like a premium quick-service concept." He also said the brand chose The Tenor because "all the locations we're looking for are very high-traffic, premium, high-visibility sites." In the same interview, Flook said the Canadian menu would match the U.S. one and estimated the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich at about $15.
Eggslut works differently from the two stores to the south. It is built for speed, not for staying. But it opens in the same season and on the same block, steps from Sankofa Square, so a coffee-and-sandwich stop now fits into the same walk as the demo stations and the brick builds.
Sankofa Square Runs the Late Shift
The square stays busy after the stores close. The Toronto Biennial of Art is screening a digital artwork by Julien Creuzet across several screens on Sankofa Square every night at 10 p.m., from September 26 to December 20. The square's calendar says the work draws on poetry, history and Caribbean traditions, shaped by Creuzet's Martinican intellectual lineage.
In December the square fills during the day too. Holiday Fair in the Square runs December 10 to 20 at 1 Dundas St. E. Admission is free, and the organizers welcome donations to Epilepsy Toronto. The visitor page lists hours of 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 10 p.m. on weekends. The fair is closed Monday, December 14, and the page directs visitors to Dundas Station on Line 1. On fair nights, the Biennial screening starts when the fair closes at 10 p.m.
The Calendar, Queen to Dundas and a Few Blocks Beyond
| Date | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Nov. 5 | Eggslut scheduled to open | 10 Dundas St. E. |
| Nightly through Dec. 20, 10 p.m. | Toronto Biennial of Art screening, Julien Creuzet | Sankofa Square |
| Nov. 19, 5:30 to 7 p.m. | Osgoode and Queen Station open house | Doubletree Hotel, 108 Chestnut St. |
| Nov. 19 to Dec. 22, Thursday to Sunday | St. Lawrence Market Winter Market | Market Street |
| Starts Nov. 28 | Cavalcade of Lights, with nightly skating and light installations | Nathan Phillips Square |
| Dec. 10 to 20 | Holiday Fair in the Square | 1 Dundas St. E. |
The two southern entries are a short walk outside the block. The St. Lawrence Market Winter Market sets up on Market Street. It adds Monday and Tuesday hours on December 21 and 22 and offers free Santa photos on weekends. The City lists Cavalcade of Lights starting November 28 at Nathan Phillips Square.
The Walk, South to North
The fall openings fall naturally into a single walk up from Queen Station:
- LEGO Store, Level 3, through the Queen Street entrance, next to Athleta.
- Reformation, Level 3, near Zara. Toronto.com lists it as newly open, adding to the brand's shops at 87 Yorkville Ave. and Yorkdale.
- Kiokii, Level 2. It reopened on October 23 in a larger space with more K-beauty and J-beauty products, according to Cadillac Fairview.
- Browns, Level 2, which moved to a new spot beside the Apple store.
- Treehouse Toys, Level 1, a new Eaton Centre store.
- Nintendo at EB Games, 267 Yonge St., for the demo stations and the My Mario set sold only there.
- Eggslut, 10 Dundas St. E., once it opens, then across to Sankofa Square for the 10 p.m. screening.
Cadillac Fairview has also announced that a Miniso is coming to the Eaton Centre. Its October 20 notice gives no opening date.
At Penthouse Queen, we follow how blocks like this one change, from a LEGO Store opening beside a station dig to a late-evening art program on the square. If you own a downtown residence near Yonge and Queen and want a private conversation about what the next stage of the Ontario Line could mean for it, request private access.
