Public Butter is the Parkdale sister store to the infamous Black Market Vintage—with two locations in Toronto's Queen West area. 

Public Butter and Black Market have quite an age gap: the latter began as a project in 1980 and the former was founded in 2008. 

The store's unique name is shrouded in much lore, which is only fueled by its owners. 

"We thought long and hard about the name of the store because we didn’t want it to be Black Market. Randomly, one of the partners came up with Public Butter for no reason other than they thought it sounded great together," says co-owner Roy Levine clearing up the mystery once and for all. 

Little sister Public Butter is slightly smaller and more curated, according to Levine. 

"We were collecting and finding stuff that was a little more boutique, a little more unique and a little more special," he explains. 

Public Butter became a home for these items. "We decided this was the right place to feature it, in a smaller footprint store, because our other two stores are considerably larger," says Levine. 

This fact is hard to grasp, as Public Butter is not exactly minuscule. 

Not for the faint of heart, vintage shoppers must be prepared to hunt for finds among the dozens of racks, thousands of square feet and countless displays densely packed with antiques and oddities."True vintage shoppers don’t mind coming through and sifting through stuff to find the gems," claims Levine. 

As a seasoned vintage shopper, I have to agree. Despite the sheer volume of clothing, accessories and bits-and-bobs, I managed to find a pair of brown 7os flares and an orange leather pageboy cap—both for $20 and under.  

"What we do here is pride ourselves on great finds, hidden gems and really reasonable prices," says Levine. "I think the wow factor for people is the affordability of the store versus other stores for similar, equivalent pieces."

Public Butter has a team of pricing experts who are well-versed in the current market value of vintage gear, yet they "always try to come in below," states Levine.  
This approach is refreshing, given the skyrocketing prices that align with the uptick in second-hand clothing's popularity in recent years.  

Walking through the store, prices seemed to be generally consistent with the rarity and value of the item.

Vintage tees ranged from $10 to $40. Jeans were between $20 and $80. While some rarer items, like original 1970s Gunne Sax prairie dresses were priced at over $100.  

Every category of garment had a range of pieces stocked at varying price points, based on their quality and authenticity, to cater to various budgets.

Like Black Market, Public Butter also has a wide selection of newly-made accessories.

Sunglasses were priced at $12.99. Belts, wallet chains and hats were all $10, and bandanas were $3 in every colour. "I think we fit in really nicely with the gentrifying neighbourhood, where there are a lot of people who maybe work downtown, are a little more affluent than Parkdale 20 years ago, and want a little spot to call their own," says Levine.

Like the slogan emblazoned on the store's window that reads "creamy good merch for the masses," Public Butter is the bread and butter for vintage shoppers in Parkdale and beyond. Public Butter is located at 1290 Queen St. West.