Mega Downtown Midland

Things are blooming in downtown Midland! The rejuvenation of King Street is coming to completion, the entire stretch of downtown from Yonge Street to Bayshore Drive has been under construction for almost 2 years in a project called “The Big Dig”. With the trees planted and new parking meters installed, there is just some landscaping remaining before the new look downtown will be ready for the world.

The great news is that as the street was under construction so were the stores, restaurants and café’s. Quite a few changes have happened behind the construction fences – we welcomed another cannabis shop called TOKE, the Olive Oil Co. arrived, and you can get all your fishing needs on the way to the marina at Georgian Bay Tackle Co.

The coming soon list is also pretty exciting with the opening of Zanca Restaurant and the arrival of DeFerrari Design & Furnishings, who are already making an impression taking over the former Crow’s Nest location. But my personal favorite new thing on King is MegaMindful Living!

Recently my best friend came up for the day and we wanted to have lunch in the great outdoors, the weather is so amazing at the moment it is hard not to be outside all the time. So I stopped at my new favorite plant based café in Midland – MegaMindful Café. I picked up a couple of wraps – Some Shockin’ Good (Caesar Kale Chicken Wrap), Smack in Da Mout! (Beetroot Falafel Wrap) and a couple of pasta salads – Thai’d One On and Orzo Going? Oh, and I love their smoothies, my fav is the Georgian Shores Moonlight. We sat outside for an extended lunch chatting, enjoying each others company and this delicious meal.

MegaMindful Café is in the former Parkers Variety location, but as the space has also been under construction you would never recognize it. Coming through the door you are immediately welcomed into a forest with a floor to ceiling mural behind the counter, it sets the tone that is an incredibly calming space.

Mother and daughter team Janice and Megan Marchildon share the same vision. They opened MegaMindful Living to help build a community based on a healthy, mindful, lifestyle and are watching their vision bloom. Janice is a Nurse Practitioner with 30+ year experience helping patients with chronic illness and Megan is a 3 x All American Heptathlete currently competing as a plant-based international functional fitness athlete.

MegaMindful Living started off as a MegaMindful studio offering a series of classes including Tai Chi, Pilates, Zumba, Yoga, MegaFit (HIIT style class), Mindful Movement, DanceFit and KidsFit. While the initial plan included a place for Megan to offer some plant-based cooking instruction for community members, with the onset of the pandemic everything needed to change. MegaMindful studio went virtual with Zoom, and the plant-based cooking instruction became the MegaMindful Café. Both are now under the MegaMindful Living banner.  The café offers daily soups, salads, sandwiches, smoothies, specialty lattes and Reishi mushroom coffee. They source most of the products they use from local businesses and producers.

Initially from Midland, Janice met her hubby at nursing school. When they graduated they had a hard time finding good jobs in Canada and were lured to the US and Texas where they spent many years and raised their family. Returning to Canada and their hometown, Janice and Megan decided to follow their passion, knowledge and experience to build a community-based wellness business. The community is growing. Megan says the response to the plant-based café has been overwhelming. She has met so many people looking to eat more plant-based meals or to try and eat healthier and MegaMindful is really the space to connect all these people.

Want to know more about MegaMindful Living? Join their email newsletter group and you will get your first MegaMindful Studio class for free. It’s a great way to connect and see what the community is all about.

MegaMindful Living is located at 227-229 King Street and the café is open Monday – Saturday 10-4.

The Menu and a full fitness class schedule are available through their website