My first memory of Parkdale is of braving a visit to Designer Fabric Outlet (1360 Queen West, 416-531-2810) when I was in high school. I took the TTC down to Osgoode station and travelled farther on Queen than I had ever gone before in search of canvas and upholstery foam.
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Back then, there weren’t many bustling shops at Queen and Palmerston, no Drake Hotel or restored Gladstone and nothing remotely resembling a hipster skulking along the sidewalk to keep your eyes busy on the streetcar ride west. Then and now, the stretch between Dufferin and Roncesvalles is Queen West’s final frontier.
And now that frontier has a Shoppers Drug Mart (1473 Queen West, 416-530-2799). The neighbourhood took notice when Parkdale’s first corporate storefront opened earlier this year. So did the commercial real estate agents who start circling as soon as an adventurous retail brand takes a chance on a developing strip.
But Parkdale has had its fair share of reinventions, from its beginnings as an upper-middle-class rural retreat from the Big Smoke to a working-class and rooming-house enclave to the culturally and economically diverse community it is today. So the locals aren’t worrying too much about the impending boom.
“It will take a lot for Parkdale to lose its grit,” says Tracey Opperman, who opened the Public Butter (1290 Queen West, 416-535-4343) with John Christman and Bernard Chung in 2008. The trio was attracted to the area because its artsy spirit reminded them of the corner of Queen and John 27 years ago, when they opened Black Market Vintage.
The Public Butter space combines retro clothing (this month with a focus on Halloween-costume-ready picks), reclaimed furniture and architectural finds like the cedar beams salvaged from an 1868 log cabin that filled the entranceway on one recent visit. A massive silkscreen press in the middle of the store cooks up T-shirts seven days a week.
Designer Fabric Outlet still feels like a textile candy store, with its main floor aisles of upholstery and home decor swatches and an upstairs stuffed with fashion fabrics. Other interior shopping options include Drapes and Sew Much More (1312 Queen West, 416-964-3778), Shopgirls (1342 Queen West, 416-534-7467) and Feather Factory (1606 Queen West, 416-536-3391).
Studio Brillantine’s (1518 Queen West, 416-536-6521) Ferdinand Suzara is celebrating the first anniversary of his store’s move west from the corner of Queen and Dovercourt and is not surprised that a lot of other businesses are following suit.
“There’s only so much of Queen, and you’ve got to claim your part of it while you can,” he says. Studio Brillantine’s piece of the Parkdale pie stocks designer housewares by Iittala and Alessi plus cheeky gift buys like Tintin T-shirts and “Happy Fucking Birthday” wrapping paper.
If your home style is more industrial than contemporary, I don’t need to tell you about the Queen West Antique Centre (1605 Queen West, 416-588-2212). Walls of tarnished trophies, rows of antique lockers and stripped-down banker desks fill the warehouse-sized space. Black Pug (1712 Queen West, 416-516-6496) and the Painted Table (1716 Queen West, 416-915-7942) stand out among the other vintage furniture spots concentrated close to Roncesvalles.
The Queen West Antique Centre is where Coriander Girl’s (1537 Queen West, 416-707-6242) Alison Westlake sourced some of the rustic fixtures that fill her new flower and garden shop one block east. A chalkboard is scribbled with arrangement greeting suggestions like “I’m sorry I stayed for that last beer” and a glass vase in the middle of room is stocked daily with $5 mini bouquets.
Aside from the jewellery selection at Made You Look’s north (1338 Queen West, 416-463-2168) and south (1273 Queen West, 416-516-9595) side of the street locations, the fashion options in this area revolve around great vintage boutiques, including Franny Vintage (1394 Queen West, 416-531-8892), Frou Frou Vintage (1616 Queen West, 416-556-6378) and Stella Luna (1627 Queen West, 416-536-7300).
The neighbourhood’s bar and dining scene is loaded with local haunts like the Cadillac Lounge (1296 Queen West, 416-536-7717), Salvador Darling (1237 Queen West, 416-534-0488), Stones Place (1255 Queen West, 416-536-4242), the Rhino (1249 Queen West, 416-535-8089) and Wrongbar (1279 Queen West, 416-516-8677).
There’s also Brown Sugar (1374 Queen West, 416-516-7771), Mitzi’s Sister (1554 Queen West, 416-532-2570), Not My Dog (1510 Queen West, 416-532-2397), Poor John’s (1610 Queen West, 647-435-2688) and gourmet favourite Cowbell (1564 Queen West, 416-849-1095).
Its newest foodie-friendly arrival, and the reason I’ll be going west often this fall, is Local Kitchen and Wine Bar (1710 Queen West, 416-534-6700). Cozy cocktails (try deciding between a manhattan mixed using bacon-washed bourbon or a hibiscus margarita) and a menu full of 100-mile fare cooked Italian-style are perfectly paired with a comfy level of neighbourly Parkdale service.
fashion@nowtoronto.com
