200 Toronto Things: the Birthday, complete with bakeries (2!) window-shopping and delicious lunch

The couple of days preceding my birthday were hell - I worked super-late Monday and Tuesday nights, and it was all I could do to get out at 5.15pm on the Wednesday. (The day before the birthday, and I was meeting a bunch of people for drinks at Victory Cafe.)

But it was all worth it - the day of the birthday dawned clear and warm, and I headed out to explore the stretch on Mount Pleasant between Eglinton and Davisville.

City guides tell me that this is the French bakery/food section of town, and yeah, I think they were right, there were a ton of bakeries.

First, I headed into the Flaky Tart for a little snack.

Then, I went into Thobor's for a flaky croissant, bypassing the temptation that was the pastry case.

I hit a couple of nameless antique stores - which was an interesting shopping experience. None of them were particularly welcoming - they weren't rude, but they certainly weren't cordial. I guess I don't look rich enough. (Fine by me, I'm not paying a $150 for an antique egg-cup, and if you can sense that off the bat, neither of us are wasting any time, are we?)

Then I went into what I'm convinced is the most surreal store in Toronto, the Little Dollhouse company.

Umm, this business cannot survive without eBay, I'm going to guess. Or mail order. There's no way this business draws enough street traffic to pay the rent.

But so interesting! Little furniture - fascinating! (Leave it to adults, right? Kids will play with a box - adults are the ones that want a perfect replica of a Chippendale cupboard, or some such crap.)

Once I'd made my way to Davisville on Mount Pleasant, I lazed out and caught a bus back to Yonge. There, I went into a bead store and bought some beads, then headed to Mela for lunch. (Same place I went to last year!)

It might be due to their extremely narrow hours of opening, but I really like Mela. I had a dish with cauliflower and quinoa, it was pretty tasty. And filling!

Post lunch, I headed to the ROM, where I discovered, much to my disgust, that I'd missed the Mayan exhibition (I guess I'm not on the mailing list anymore. Annoying!) Then, there was some rather aimless wandering from the ROM towards Bathurst, and then, back home. Super nice! And what brilliant weather I had!

Dinner was with the parents and Madhav at Mother's Dumplings, which was tasty, but again, I'm somewhat of a regular there, so doesn't count as a Toronto thing. Still, a day with 4 Toronto things - that's a pretty packed day!