Piya’s Boutique
- Every night, Noah becomes a Scent DJ and lights us incense from Piya’s Boutique, to help us wind down for sleep. Piya has run her shop for 50 years! It’s a library of scents and will help you cultivate a relaxing time in your space. The matriarch is in the process of passing the boutique down to her children and she’s still around sometimes to give the best scent recommendations based on what you’re looking for (letting go is hard, ok!!). Trust her, she knows best. (Noah’s fave is Radha. and Judy’s is Journey of Love or Precious Earth.)
Stackt Market
- A little hub of unique shops, workshops, and restaurants built out of container ships.
A Different Booklist
- An independent bookstore that specializes in BIPOC authors. This place is a haven and community hub that frequently hosts events.
Balfour Books
- Really unique and fun secondhand books. Some secondhand bookshops can be glorified dusty heaps, but this place is actually wonderful.
Bakka-Phoenix Bookshop
- Sci-Fi, Fantasy, YA galore at an independent bookstore
Good Egg
- A fun zany cookbook store.
Kid Icarus
- Creative prints and gifts at this screen print shop.
Press Internationale
- Noah doesn’t get it, but this place is a magazine nerd’s heaven. You can find nearly every English-language (even French! Chinese!) magazine at this shop and they’re all pristine and smell so good.
Baa Baazar
- The most fun gifts and home goods you’ll encounter! They’ve cultivated a very unique collection there.
Lucky Bodega
- If you have any junk foods you’re nostalgic for, that are very hard to find now, Lucky Bodega probably has it. There are lots of American, Canadian, and Asian offerings.
Wonder Pens
- For stationary heads.
First Markham Place
- Go here for the best Asian food court, to get a new watch, see your ginseng guy, get a foot massage, update your phone plan, a haircut… they literally have everything here at this Chinese mall. Bring cash cause you’re gonna want to get yourself a spread from the food court.