Victoria’s The Market Garden and Sabayons Share the Local Love

Ryan Townsend has both a keen eye and a discerning palate. This combination makes for a winning duet in the success of his two epicurean and lifestyle boutiques in Victoria, The Market Garden and Sabayons. Every item in his exquisitely designed stores is either a thing of beauty or delicious—and oftentimes both.

Townsend’s background is in design and as a craftsman, and his talents are on full display in the boutiques. Conventional shelving is traded for antique furniture, overhead fluorescent lighting for whimsical handblown chandeliers and boring white walls for colour-saturated murals and oil paintings.

It all started in 2015, when he rented the back of a mom-and-pop grocery store on Catherine Street in Vic West as his workshop. Townsend took over the backyard garden and started selling organic seeds and produce to locals.

Townsend shares more about what inspired his two boutiques, along with a few favourite B.C.-based products.

The Market Garden was born in 2017. How did you set up shop?

“I basically went to the owner of the store and said, hey, do you have any interest in selling the business? And he kind of looked at me like, why would you want that?” laughs Townsend. “It had to be one of the longest-running stores in Victoria, with many different owners over the years, and many different concepts. At one time they sold paint, there was a cobbler and a meat market.”

Where did you first get the idea for the look and feel you wanted to create?

 

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“The inspiration for the store was back in 2009. I went to Europe for the first time, to London and Paris.  I’ve always hated shopping, and then I went to Harrods. It sort of blew my mind. It was sensory overload. I’ve never seen a store set up in the way it was; it sold a variety of products, and each room was like walking into a different world—it felt like it never ended.”

How would you describe The Market Garden?

“I’ve heard it called Mary Poppins’ carpet bag. Maybe a bit of Alice in Wonderland. There’s just some magic to it all for sure. Oh, and bougie market or the fancy store,” he adds.

“People have told us they come here to escape the world. COVID is when we really exploded with sales, and that’s where we were put on the map,” he continues. “What was interesting about those times was that the world slowed down and got crazy, with normal grocery stores becoming like war zones. So here you could go into this magical little world, full of nice products.”

How would you describe the store’s products?

“It’s carefully curated,” he explains. “Our job is to filter through and get the good stuff. Over time we’ve built entire areas in the store for certain products—for instance, our non-alcohol cellar—because the customer interest grew and it makes sense here versus selling at a typical grocery store or liquor store. If you throw those products on conventional shelving and don’t create an experience around it, I think it would be a tough sell.”

You opened Sabayons in December 2025 in the former Hudson’s Bay main floor space. What’s different about Sabayons?

 

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“It’s a whole different concept. Here, you can buy your canned Italian tomatoes and Italian shoes at the same time,” he says. “We do housewares and candles, plus a special toy area. We started with 8,000 square feet, which is twice the size of The Market Garden, and we are negotiating with the owners about expanding further.”

What are a few of your favourite B.C.-based products you sell at The Market Garden?

Townsend recommends:

• The smoked salmon, saffron and leek lasagna from New Westminster’s Gastronomia Italia
• Victoria’s 49 Below Ice Cream in the cinnamon crunch flavour
• Ones+ non-alcoholic sparkling rosé
• Vancouver’s Kasama Chocolate‘s blackberry white bar
• Salt Spring Sea Salt fleur de sel finishing salt
• The duck prosciutto from Victoria’s Haus Sausage Co.