WARMINGTON: New Streetsville coffee shop is a film set — but don’t worry, there’s plenty more

It's ironic the quaint area is being used for a movie because the town always feels like a film set

Published Jul 11, 2026  •  4 minute read

"Beach Read" film set located in the Streetsville area of Mississauga. Photo by Joe Warmington /Toronto Sun

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Have you tried that new coffee shop and bookstore Pete’s Books and Coffee in quaint Streetsville yet?

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It’s like stepping back in time or right into the scene of a movie.

Turns out this newly created storefront on Queen St. in the famous Mississauga village on the Credit River is not actually a cafe but a temporary film set.

Local business gets transformed for filming

In fact, set directors and location professionals have been busy all week transforming a local business into a make-believe store for the upcoming filming of the Netflix feature film Beach Read, based on the famous 2020 novel by Emily Henry.

The popular store that is usually there, The Littlest Gift Boutique, has told its customers that they will be closed until late July to allow for this production, starring English actress Phoebe Dynevor and American actor Patrick Schwarzenegger.

This has not stopped people walking by from poking their heads in and looking to get a coffee and maybe a book at this cool little store. Inside, however, there are film people preparing for the director and actors and camera people to show up.

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No worries. Streetsville have plenty of other amazing coffee shops and small businesses that really do feel like a movie set – even when one is not being filmed.

Armi, from The Bake and Brew Cafe located in the Streetsville area of Mississauga. Photo by Joe Warmington

Ironically, if not for this film production, perhaps people would not even have known about one not far away called The Bake and Brew Cafe, which is actually hidden in a cool little pedestrian alleyway called Gagliano Lane along with a barbershop and other neat stores and shops.

“It’s been neat because the film crew have been coming in to get coffee,” said The Bake and Brew owner Armi – who said she opened her little shop two years ago and has been growing by word of mouth.

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It’s not lost on her that a fake coffee shop for a Hollywood movie is now giving her more business.

“I love it here and I love my customers,” she said.

As Canada tries to figure out its struggling economy in 2026, it’s neat to see places like this popping up in Ontario, and it’s something that is good for everybody. There needs to be a climate of helping small entrepreneurs like Armi who has created her own job while adding to the uniqueness of Streetsville.

She has a chess board in her little cafe and books and memories of iconic late Mayor Hazel McCallion. Hazel was for small business. When you have people investing in and working on their communities, you get greatness.

When you replace capitalism and only offer socialist ideas, you don’t see places flourishing like what people are trying to do in Streetsville.

There’s nothing worse than going to Ontario towns and seeing their main streets boarded up thanks to strip malls, shopping centres and online juggernauts like Amazon. When all you have is drug addicts lying around on the sidewalks, you don’t have the Canadian dream but a real-life nightmare.

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Neighbourhoods finding the right balance

Some places do what they can to thrive and find the right balance of business and government to make it special for everybody. Neighbourhoods like Streetsville and Unionville in Markham, as well as many others in Toronto, are great efforts to keep the spirit of the main drag alive and even prospering.

Streetsville has the old Franklin House pub, The Tea Room, Shelly’s diner, Goodfellas Pizza, Murphy’s Ice Cream and, of course, Cuchulainn’s Irish Pub as well as many others. Just recently, a group of entrepreneurs managed to renovated the historic Odd Fellows Hall, vacant for decades, and turned it into the Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Company, which is right across the street from where a Starbucks once was.

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All of these small business owners are betting on Canada, Ontario and people wanting to spend their money on products from non-corporate players as they savour the uniqueness of their tiny towns. It’s important in the summer of 2026 to remember that not everything is about death and crime and poverty. It’s also life and people trying to live it and make it better.

Every part of Ontario has amazing towns like this and amazing people with ideas and a passion for trying to create something special. Whether it’s a cool mural, a business or a movie being filmed there, these towns are better when they are not littered with the darkness of drug abuse and filled with happiness, energy, commerce and people like Armi. It is not only fulfilling her dream of owning her own coffee shop but working hard to make it flourish.

That they are filming a movie in Streetsville is a positive thing for the village, which has shined a spotlight on many positive things happening there. This is the best of Ontario and the best of Canada and anything that can be done to help foster this success is a good thing for everybody.

Pete’s Books and Coffee may not be a real business. But there are many all-around it that certainly are and would be happy to see you drop in, say hello and stay for a while.

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