All the vintage stores on Dundas West and their neighbouring bars, restaurants and contemporary shops are rallying together to participate in a new monthly business crawl, taking place the second Thursday of every month in Little Portugal.
Organized by the owners of vintage and hand-made shop Good Habits, Kelty Lewis and Meaghan Harris, with the collaborative input of Expo Vintage owner Nick Marian, the goal of Seconds Night Crawl is to reinstill a sense of community in the neighbourhood and draw people to the west end.
The idea was inspired by versions of a vintage crawl hosted by the Little Portugal Toronto BIA, who is also responsible for presenting Do West Fest. The BIA also launched a new event on the last Saturday of every month, aptly named “Last Saturday,” which facilitates guided and self led public art, gallery and vintage tours in the area.
“We’re lucky because our members are active members of our community and have run with the ball, so to speak. This year, our local vintage community within our BIA organized a vintage map in collaboration with the BIA,” says Little Portugal Toronto BIA coordinator Anah Shabbar. The map launched during a vintage crawl in April with 11 featured shops, and a graphic designed by Toronto artist Tebby G. Shabbar adds that two vintage shops have since opened in the area, as reflected in an updated version of the map now available at Little Portugal vintage shops.
Lewis says the vintage crawl was so successful that she and Harris wanted to create more consistency around it. “We should do it every single month,” she remembers saying. “What’s stopping us?”
They pitched the idea to the group of businesses involved with the BIA crawl and encountered some initial hesitancy, so they decided to set out on their own and brand it as a separate event. The BIA is very supportive of the idea and the duo hopes that as the event grows, there may be some potential to get funding from the city.
“We always feel the community spirit after doing crawls or street festivals. For example, Do West Fest is a huge weekend for us as a community,” explains Lewis. “So we wanted to keep that spirit in the neighbourhood.”
They came up with the name, deciding that the second Thursday of every month seemed like a good time to give people something to do, when plans may otherwise be running short. Given that it’s a weeknight, it also doesn’t step on the toes of local markets that are popular on the weekends, says Lewis.
Then they picked the brain of Marian, who has been working in vintage for eight years and operating Expo since 2019, and who Lewis credits with the “bureaucratic” insights she was lacking. All that was left to do was brand the event and start going door to door to see who would be interested in participating.
But Lewis and Harris don’t claim any authority in directing the event, because they hope for it to be more collaborative than that.
“We just want to launch it, and then we hope that it’ll kind of run itself,” says Lewis. There’s no parameters or fees for entry — instead, interested businesses can simply send the pair a message. “All of our neighbours are welcome and we want everyone working together as a full community, so that we can bring people from different parts of the city to the west end,” she adds.
The first event took place in July with 12 vintage shops, and the next month it doubled, extending to local bars, restaurants and contemporary shops. Running from 6 p.m. until late, many of the businesses extend their normal business hours to participate, and sometimes invite smaller businesses to pop-up in their space.
Lewis says the energy is palpable on those Thursdays. “Even going out afterwards, I could feel a sense of community, a little bit more excitement. Hopefully one day we can have it be so successful that we have music on the street, and food trucks.”
The next Seconds Night Crawl will take place on Sept. 12, and will include businesses like Shop Coat, Expo Toronto (Shop Silly Billy within), Good Habits, Chosen Vintage, Penny Arcade Vintage, Fevers Vintage, Easy Tiger Goods, Soop Soop, Tell Them It’s Vintage (Styles by Mariam within), Pic Vintage Shop, Issues Magazine Shop, Made for Me Marketplace, Sienna Flora, Swan Dive, Three Fates, Sixteen Eleven Studios, Moonmilk, My Clementine Vintage and Beadle.
“I think it’s a nice alternative for people who don’t necessarily want to go out to a restaurant and spend too much money, or even if they’re not shopping during this crawl, it’s just a nice thing to do — walk around, get to know the neighbourhood, chat with people, maybe have a drink at a shop,” says Lewis.
