For antique lovers, the thrill of the hunt is alive and well in Davisville Village. You’ll only need to walk Mount Pleasant Road for a mini antiques district with great food and coffee to boot.
So, how about an Uptown day trip to sniff out a serendipitous find or two to remind you of your trip to Toronto?
A 10-minute walk from Davisville (or Eglinton) subway station, the retail strip between Davisville and Eglinton avenues offers a step backwards in time thanks to its quaint indie shops, bakeries and quirky storefronts.
Need to fuel up before exploring the local Toronto shops? Visit PIANO PIANO for an Italian menu with unique flavours and standout pizza.
Grab a latte (made from single-origin beans, of course)—or start your shopping—at At Origin Coffee. While many coffeeshops hang art on the walls, this family-owned café goes one step further by mounting full exhibitions by featured visual artists and hosting regular tile mosaic workshops.
But where do you start your hunt? Glad you asked.
What’s a hunt without a map?
Alexandre Antique Prints, Maps & Books is a delightful stop for anyone interested in cartography. This antiquarian shop has thousands of maps and prints for sale, many dating back centuries.
Not one to overwhelm newcomers, the store is thoughtfully organized by size and subject so you can easily find the piece you’re after. Beyond the wall-to-wall offering of prints, Alexandre’s is also home to a library of books from as early as the 1400s—head to the back of the store and you’ll feel like you’ve stepped back in time.
The spot for home goods and works of art
Bernardi’s Antiques is a 2,500-square-foot feast for the senses, stocked full of goods from as early as the 18th century.
You will know you’re in a special place once you see the marble busts that await visitors or the glass cabinets holding 19th-century porcelain tea sets and ornate silverware.
The storefront offers treasures including French and English antique furniture, Victorian glass and mid-20th-century pottery. Bernardi’s has a little bit of everything—and a lot of it.
For rolling out the red carpet
Royal Antique Rug Gallery has been in the rug business for over 100 years. Toronto is the store’s home, but the owners’ roots are in Tehran. And after all these years, it’s still a family-run business and the go-to place for antique rugs.
David, the store’s owner, is a master rug maintainer who personally oversees each piece that comes to the store. True to its name, Royal Antique Rug Gallery displays its rugs in a gallery style and boasts an offering that spans the entire world, including Persian, Turkish and Chinese rugs.
Getting to Davisville Village
Take the Line 1 Yonge-University subway to Davisville or Eglinton stations and walk east to Mount Pleasant Road. Route 74 offers bus service up and down Mount Pleasant Road.
—This story has been updated with new details since it was first published in March 2021.
