Toronto’s Secret Treasure: Acadia Vintage Book & Art Store

by Mia M.

Hi honey, I’m home – and I’ve got a big, fat, green monster with me named “Envy”. Yes, I am envious; steaming jealous, in fact. Why? What could I possibly be envious of? You bastards – you bastards and your Autumnal season.

Oh my god, you people will not let me escape it – fall moodboards, fall playlists, fall bucketlists. I moved to Australia to chase the sun and relive my summer, but I’m being bombarded with the beautiful season that is Autumn and I’m . . . I’m melting, guys, it’s getting to me. Part of me is wistfully window shopping on UK sites to look at the new knits and boots and-

Look, let’s just stop this here, I can’t take the pain.

Jokes aside, I have been loving the Autumn content recently and, while I am most definitely not in Autumn, it’s definitely reminded me of what I got up to during Autumn/Winter of last year! So today, almost a year late, I’m going to be sharing some of my trip to Toronto with you – in fact, I’m going to be sharing my favourite place that we found there.

Acadia Antique Book & Art Store

In case you are unfamiliar with the circumstances leading me to Toronto, last year after I sold my blog (go check out that blogging journey post, it’s an interesting one!) I took my mother on a two-part holiday as a Christmas present. We started off in Toronto, then flew from there to New York and we had a great time!

I actually booked this trip with Wowcher (not sponsored, sadly. Feel free to sponsor me though, Wowcher, I wouldn’t complain) – they always have great package holidays where flights, accomodation and transfers are taken care of for a literal fraction of the normal price. You guys already know how much I love Wowcher (my entire Italy trip earlier this year was booked through them!), so if you’re into travelling cheaply make sure you check out their travel offers.

But enough about how we got there; let’s talk about this treasure trove we discovered when we were there.

The store’s address is 232 Queen St E, Toronto, ON M5A 1S3, Canada, but we stumbled across it when out walking around – and up the road from it is where we got a (very eventful) psychic reading! The entire area is . . . I’m not quite sure what the right word here is, but it’s atmospheric. Bohemian, quirky. Above the stores are unique apartments with tons of character and charm – and the best damn windows you’ve ever seen.

It’s not massive in the way of foot traffic and along its stretch of road there are a few other antique stores, but they’re quite spread out. In fact, we only discovered this treasure on the way to the Toronto Christmas markets and we couldn’t ignore the allure! (If you saw a vintage bookstore with a big sign saying “art” and “books” with a freaking cat on it, would you be able to ignore it? I think not.)

While primarily an antique book store, Acadia is so much more than just that. It’s the sort of place you can lose hours inside and still not make a dent, the kind of place you daydream about working in – the kind of place that piques your curiosity; that inspires story ideas and characters and ideas.

There are three floors of goodies to trawl through. It’s an absolute treasure trove; stuffed full of little wonders to discover from vintage fairytale books to prints and postcards. Art, music – even typewriters! It’s a magical little cove full of hidden gems; in fact, it’s exactly the kind of whimsical little shop you expect to discover walking along the streets that could easily be part of a fairytale.

Look at them; tell me they aren’t straight out of a supernatural novel. I expect a friendly witch to live in one of these houses and tend to Acadia as her day job, running her fingers over the old books and sometimes discovering grimoires and spellbooks.

Which leads us nicely to the love of my Toronto life, a book that I was almost tempted to spend £50 on . . .

Alas, I did not buy the beauty because I’d planned to come back for it if I still had change after the Christmas markets and we ended up coming back too late, but it called to my soul.

While a lot of the wares do come at a premium prices due to their age etc, there are a lot of more affordable options like the vast collection of old records in their simply beautiful covers.

So, even if you are on a budget, you can still pick yourself up some great little souveneirs.

Now, onto the real stars of the show, the cats. There were two beautiful, fluffy, friendly cats lounging around the store – which makes sense, considering the sign outside – and they were just the final touch I never knew the shop needed.

Look at those balls of fluff!

Okay, my beautiful people, that is my little hidden treasure from Toronto now shared with you! I hope you enjoyed this post; have you ever been to Toronto? Would you visit this bookstore? Let me know your thoughts down below!

Peace,