Residents and business owners are determined to keep this strip for locals, by locals, in hope to maintain the perfect balance of community, affordability and artistry.Tuan Minh Nguyen/The Globe and Mail
When Erin Stump closed her gallery on Dupont Street in Toronto’s Junction Triangle neighbourhood in November, 2022, she sought a replacement tenant who was equally committed to using the space to unite the local artistic community. It turned out her friend Lee Dekel, an Israeli-born fashion designer who owns the boutique 100% Silk, was looking to expand from her tiny storefront on Queen Street West, a neighbourhood known for its bustling retail atmosphere.
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It was important for Stump – who has been at the forefront of the Junction Triangle’s thriving art scene for the past decade – to find a creative and independent business to take over the space. 100% Silk, which carries the work of global, independent designers making the kind of handmade, textile-driven clothes that appeal to the city’s more creative residents, fit the bill.
The storefront also seemed destined for Dekel: It used to be tailoring shop run by a Jewish family, and she could use the bigger space as a studio.
Inez Genereux, manager of 100% Silk shop and gallery, on May 11.Tuan Minh Nguyen/The Globe and Mail
Items for sale at 100% Silk.Tuan Minh Nguyen/The Globe and Mail
By supporting independent businesses, locals-turned-landlords like Erin Stump help maintain the community feel of a neighbourhood in flux. Despite the surrounding development, the Junction Triangle has remained dedicated to serving its diverse swath of residents.
The 500-metre strip of Dupont Street between Symington Avenue and the West Toronto Railpath is the main thoroughfare of the Junction Triangle neighbourhood, a residential region about 25-minutes drive northwest of downtown and bound by railways on three sides, hence its geometric moniker.
About a decade ago, the gentrification around Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue trickled northward to the Dupont strip, where a thriving art scene developed as artists and gallerists were priced out of downtown cultural hubs like West Queen West.
Slowly, independent art galleries, coffee shops and local restaurants began popping up. Sterling Road just south of Bloor Street was redeveloped to include the new Museum of Contemporary Art. Condo and housing developments were built, drawing in young families and professionals.
“Businesses looking for more affordable rents started moving to that Dupont strip early and this really helped motivate buyers to move into that area,” says John Pasalis, the president of Toronto brokerage Realosophy.
Real estate trends and insights generally group in the Junction Triangle with its wealthier and more developed next-door neighbour, the Junction. It’s clear, though, that both residential and commercial rents have skyrocketed in the past decade – like everywhere else in Toronto.
Despite these shifts, 100% Silk is one of several independent shops and restaurants that have set up shop on the Dupont strip within the past year, joining neighbourhood mainstays including Mattachioni, Farmhouse Tavern, and Cafe Con Leche, helping foster a bustling high street and local community.
Residents and business owners are determined to keep this strip for locals, by locals, in hope to maintain the perfect balance of community, affordability and artistry. It’s a balance that neighbourhoods like West Queen West haven’t been able to maintain. That downtown street once boasted the highest concentration of art galleries in North America, earning it the designation of the city’s Arts + Design District. But nine years since Vogue named West Queen West the second coolest street in the world, only a quarter of the galleries are still standing.
In the Dupont Strip of the Junction Triangle, however, treasured neighbourhood establishments are still thriving. Dotty’s is one. Chef and owner Jay Carter and his business partner Susan Beckett opened the walk-in only restaurant in August, 2022, and it immediately became a local favourite largely through word-of-mouth.
Chef and owner Jay Carter and his business partner Susan Beckett opened walk-in only restaurant Dotty's in August, 2022.Tuan Minh Nguyen/The Globe and Mail
Carter and Beckett decided to open up Dotty’s after closing the beloved Dandylion on Queen Street West in 2021, a stone’s throw away from 100% Silk’s original location. After seven years with Dandylion, Carter realized his vision for an elegant dining experience may not jive on a street that needs to be power-washed every Sunday morning. “I wanted an adult restaurant in a neighbourhood that was frequented in the evening by kids having a great time,” he says, referencing the party scene of Queen Street West.
Interior of Dotty's.Tuan Minh Nguyen/The Globe and Mail
But Carter and Beckett cite another reason for closing Dandylion that’s all too common in Toronto: a hulking new development across the street would not only shutter their favourite coffee shop but block all the sunlight that once streamed through the restaurant’s dramatic factory-style windows.
It’s not just the accessible street parking and quieter evenings that drew them northward to the Junction Triangle. Queen West became unrecognizable, and the independent institutions that once defined the neighbourhood’s spirit were changing. The Gladstone was bought by a new group; the Drake was expanding. “Everything felt like it was shifting,” says Beckett.
Next year, Beckett and Carter are opening up a second restaurant two minutes away from Dotty’s. Their business partners, Jay Fernandes and Dan Armstrong, befriended Beckett and Carter as customers at Dandylion. They live across the street from Dotty’s. “We were seeing too much gentrification happen in certain areas of the city,” says Fernandes of chain restaurants replacing local haunts in historically diverse neighbourhoods such as Parkdale. He hopes that ensuring the survival of independent businesses will attract the kinds of residents who value them.
Shawn Micallef, the co-founder of Spacing magazine, agrees. “Right now, when you walk along that street, it is everything I love about the city,” he says. “You don’t know what you’re going to get. Maybe you’ll get a Domino’s chain, but you might get all these kinds of indie businesses, or you might get these really old businesses, or an old ethnic social club and all kind of exists in the same spot, and that’s sort of, like, the magic of cities.”
Inez Genereux, 100% Silk’s manager, says the Dupont strip reminds them of the community feel of the store’s original location where local business owners were friendly with each other. They remember the owner of a nearby convenience store bringing gifts to the opening party on Queen West. “Then I think, like, six months later, the convenience store got torn down and this awful condo went up,” they say, referring to the building that blocked Dandylion’s light. The Junction Triangle gives them hope. “The plaza here, it gives me so much love and life just being like, yay, maybe someone from there will come and check out the store.”
In said plaza is Alma+Gil, a self-funded, tiny cafe and take-away counter with a side patio hawking tasty breakfast sandwiches. Chef Gerry Quintero and his long-time partner Mandy Sou opened their permanent location last year after opening pop-ups around the city. “It’s developing to be, like, a foodie hub kind of area,” says Quintero of the Junction Triangle. Quintero also says there’s a convivial vibe with neighbours, including Souvlaki Emporium and Stay Home, the vintage furniture shop.
Mandy Sou and Gerry Quintero, founders of Alma+Gil, work in the kitchen on May 11.Tuan Minh Nguyen/The Globe and Mail
Some signature dishes from Alma+Gil.Tuan Minh Nguyen/The Globe and Mail
Micallef notes that there hasn’t been an overwhelming amount of condo development in the immediate area pushing small businesses out. He also has nuanced views about how development contributes to gentrification. Condos don’t always spell death for small businesses; after all, people need places to live in the city. But big buildings do often draw big retailers, banks and fast-food chains that can afford the larger, more expensive spaces that condos offer, shuttering the sandwich shop or clothing boutique.
A balance of businesses that serve all residents of a neighbourhood – not just a socioeconomic slice – keeps a city equitable and interesting. “Can everyone in the neighbourhood find something for them on that strip?” asks Micallef. “These early moments of a neighbourhood changing, when there’s that mix of everything, are the ideal if we could freeze it.”