It is so-o-o-o-o-o French.

The French Market at Ogilvie opened yesterday, and I had a look.

It's a combination food court and grocery with many separate vendors (or at least separate counters with their own registers). Not bad, but if they are going to make it they will need lots of neighborhood traffic and a lunch crowd rather than commuters rushing to work or to catch a train.

How French is it? Ellie Stone singing Jacques Brel songs in English on the sound system. I guess that's French enough.

C'est La Vie !!

Sarcasm aside (yes, we know the "french market" name is a misnomer, and nothing more than a marketing tool) I went to take a look yesterday, and it's pretty nice nonetheless. The CVS pharmacy actually opened in late October, and is one of the few stores that is using the south portion of the concourse, just a few paces down from the ticket window. Most of the other stores will be using what I believe were a portion of the old CNW's headhouse facilities located on the north side of the concourse, including the market itself, located between tracks 6 and 7. It did feel a bit strange being in that area on a Saturday since it always used to be closed the entire weekend before now, but I'm wondering why Metra didn't staff anyone at the ticket window, which was closed. (BTW, It would also help if they updated the RTA map in the transit information area, it still dates to at least 2005, but I digress...) Metra expects to collect about $1.5M annually in rent from the vendors doing business here when it's all said and done, but whether or not that will be enough to stave off additional fare increases in the future is debatable. Still, not bad for $43 million dollars, or at least, that was the original price tag when construction started over 3 years ago...

Update: No music the second day.

I like that. I prefer to shop without music, particularly at this time of year.