John’s Fruit Village

It may officially be called «John’s Food Village» on paper, but to locals to BWV (that’s Bloor West Village!) it’s simply referred to as «John’s» or «that fruit market on Armadale». Yes, there are many fruit markets in the ten blocks that span BWV — Carload, Green Thumb, Fresh ‘n Wild, even No Frills — but John’s is truly the best.
Nowhere else can you show up with $ 20 and leave with bags that are bulging to such an extent that you can hardly wrap your strained fingers around the loopholes and have to pause for a break every block just to give your biceps a rest. Seriously.
They have three bins of avocados in varying degrees of freshness. HUGE bunches of fresh dill, basil and coriander for $ 1 each, baby spinach that’s freshly bagged and ready to eat, massive navel oranges (seedless, of course), cheap ripe kiwis, nectarines (stiff, the way I like ‘em) and humongoid sweet potatoes. Oh, and they sell spices and flowers too. What more could you ask for?
In recent years they’ve curtailed their late night hours and I believe they now close at 10pm, but before that you could go to John’s at like 2am and buy a pound of potatoes for tomorrow morning’s hash browns if you felt like it.

This green grocer doesn’t even have a sign, but the large expanse of fruits and vegetables under its big orange awning is, I suppose, all the sign you really need. Unlike the other fruit and vegetable stores along Bloor West, these guys probably have half their wares outside the store, and half inside (which is still not too small).
Another thing that JZ has going for it is that it’s right outside the entrance to Jane Subway Station; if you’re coming into the neighborhood by TTC (and need to grab some produce on the way), it’s super-​convenient, at very competitive prices.