TIGHT SQUEZE: They say you should never shop for food when youre hungry. Vancouver-based powerhouse retailer Michel Menard (he of the über-stylish Menard Agency) has expanded that old trope to exclude clothes shopping. Menards latest venture, the Denim Gallery Café (906 Main St., ) is a revamping of that old, abandoned Bank of Montreal building at the corner of Main and Prior where everyone and their mother has gone for the last decade for a seemingly endless series of sample sales. Now a fully-realized store, Denim Gallery Café might just have invented an entirely new retail concept: Comfort Shopping. What else would you call a storefront that not only hawks such iconic, cozy brands as Levis, Converse, Ray-Ban, Landyachtz longboards and locally-designed Herschel bags, but also serves up old-school, mom-style grilled cheese sandwiches? In theory, Shop Talk loves the idea of bringing together two historical enemies like food and fashion, but it might be a bit of a squeeze fitting into those new purchases after wolfing down so much cheezy goodness. Of course, one could always swallow ones pride (and another sandwich) and just go up a size...
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