Hurry Up and Visit Dilly Dally: Cool Toys On Commercial Drive
(Psst… to view images from our Dilly Dally photo shoot, check out our Facebook page.)
Just a few doors down from Commercial Drive’s Grandview Park is a recently opened gem of a toy store: Dilly Dally.
Like its name suggests, you and your kids will want to take your time and stay a while.
Claire Hutchings and Tyler Quantz spent the last two years researching and developing the business with the goal to create a place that carried “inspiring toys that encourage imagination.” The couple plans to start a family soon and wanted to open a kid-friendly business. “We kept finding all these incredible toys that weren’t available or were hard to find in Vancouver,” explains Tyler. “Parents kept telling us they would love to buy toys like these. We really love toys and we love kids so it was the perfect fit.”
You won’t find the popular Plan or HABA brands at Dilly Dally. Claire and Tyler have purposefully sought out toys not sold in many other stores. Tyler tells me that some Vancouver gift stores have some of these toys but not this amount of toys all in one place.
Looking for hard-to-find items seems to be in their DNA. Claire and Tyler also run Six Acres, a Gastown restaurant that specializes in difficult-to-find bottled beer.
“Our store is really unique in that it combines the best of the toy stores we grew up on full of bouncy balls and stuffed animals with the high quality European style wooden toy store,” says Tyler. “There are so many toys in the world so we carefully evaluate every toy we bring in to make sure it is a great toy.”
With a strong focus on sustainable, ethically manufactured products, Dilly Dally has a great selection of books and a variety of toys – from small 25 cent stickers to a dollhouse complete with furniture. They have a tremendous selection of wooden play food, block puzzles and stackers, blocks, books and push toys.
And if for some strange reason your child isn’t in the mood to shop for toys, they can spend some time colouring at the art desk or playing in a play kitchen or market stand.
Dilly Dally reminds me of a time gone by – but with a modern twist. In a time when my iPhone is a source of major entertainment for my five-year-old, I appreciate that these toys are simple. I especially love that my children will be able to understand and “solve” the mechanics of these toys, rather than get lost in the “magic” of most electronics.
The store itself is beautiful and artfully designed. The space is open enough to accommodate even the largest of strollers and the shelves are stocked well with toys – but not so overstuffed that you can’t see them. The books are at an accessible level for young children to browse. The front of the table features a long harvest table with baskets full of balls, wooden tops and toys worthy of a child’s allowance money. My niece saw a flash of the photos while I was writing this article and said, “Oooh, a candy store.”
Because, yes, Dilly Dally is sure to inspire that same kind of feeling of whimsy and imagination in your child.
Dilly Dally
1161 Commercial Dr, Vancouver | 604.252.9727
www.dillydallykids.ca | Twitter: @dillydallykids | Facebook
Stroller-cruising commercial with the kids we were drawn into the store and loved checking out the toys. We purchased a wooden flower pinwheel (bottom right in photo above) and a paper yoyo.) $11 was a bit steep for the 2 items but it was the first warm, sunny day and we wanted some nostalgic summer goods! The paper yoyo still lives on 1 month later, so for $1.99 it was a great buy. The pinwheel, however, was a huge disappointment – it was pretty but didn’t work at all, not even when we tried holding it out the car window while driving home. At $7.99 that was enough to make me hesitate before purchasing a second time. I made the assumption that the goods would be carefully selected based on looks AND testing for fun & function (what a great job toy tester would be!) It was handmade, enviro friendly & very cute, but a toy that doesn’t work isn’t sustainable or child friendly. Alas, the $1.99 plastic/foil pinwheels of old days will continue to be a staple in our household & amongst the pebbles & shells in our pinwheel garden.