Shops filled with ice cream and coffee abound in Halifax, plus three more things you need to know about Atlantic Canadian business this week.

Coffee shop opens inside Volta Labs
Volta Labs just got a jolt of caffeine with the opening of Sine Coffee Labs on June 10. Located on the lobby level of the Maritime Centre, Sine offers a variety of speciality coffees like drip and pour-over, along with smoothies, pastries and sandwiches. Sine Coffee Labs is operated by coffee experts Alex Lee and Joe Dunford — the pair opened the popular Cortado Tasting Room in Bedford in 2016.

Tobique First Nation small business wins big Fed Ex grant
Jolene Laskey, the owner of Wabanaki Maple Products, was awarded the FexEd Express Canada Small Business Grant grand prize last week. The Tobique First Nation small business that makes barrel-aged maple syrup will be awarded $30,000, a brand marketing workshop valued at $10,000 and a meeting with FedEx Express Canada president Lisa Lisson.

Dildo Brewing opens retail shop in St. John’s
Dildo Brewing Co. is making moves into St. John’s: they opened up a new retail shop at 332 Water Street in downtown St. John’s on June 21. The popular brewery will sell merchandise like t-shirts and baseball caps along with a selection of their brews in cans and on tap for growlers refills.

Public meeting on Charlottetown short-term rentals attracts crowd
The short-term rental bylaw process in Charlottetown attracted a full house at a public meeting last week. From bed and breakfast owners to Airbnb owners to those having trouble finding an apartment to rent, the packed house heard from a variety of speakers. The City of Charlottetown will now take the feedback from the meeting to draft a bylaw surrounding short-term rentals.

Canada’s first Syrian ice cream shop opens in Bedford
Booza Emessa, the Syrian-style ice cream shop, opened at 819 Bedford Highway last week, the first of its kind in the country. Ice cream-maker Samer Aljokhadar arrived in Canada four years ago as a refugee and with the dream of opening his own shop, and now his Halifax store features the thicker ice cream rolled with nuts and pistachios characteristic of Syrian ice cream.

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