My first visit to Nicholas Hoare on Front St. came after I visited the store's Ottawa location a month or so prior. Somehow I'd missed out on venturing to the T.O. shop until then, but after seeing its beauty in Ottawa I had to make a trip posthaste!
Simply put, Nicholas Hoare is a gorgeous bookstore. Wood floors and shelves, comfy couches, and A FIREPLACE. But for me, even more beautiful than all that is the actual way in which they display the books on the shelves. The vast majority of books are displayed FRONT-FACING. You're not stuck browsing through (often rather boring) spines at this shop -- you're looking right at the (hopefully usually beautifully-designed) covers. Of course, logistically this means that they can't stock as many books on the shelves as Indigo would in this same amount of space. But trust me, it's well worth the trade-off. Not only is this tactic more aesthetically pleasing but it's also just so much more useful to the customers. Truly a genius decision on the part of Nicholas Hoare and the main reason I could never give this shop any less than a 5 out of 5!