One to three storey storefronts run for blocks past cafes and delicatessens, with wood frame houses on the cross streets behind them.
What Commercial Drive looks like
Storefronts along Commercial Drive run about twenty five feet wide, in buildings that step from one to three storeys with an uneven roofline and staggered setbacks. Between Grant and Kitchener Streets the fronts crowd close enough to leave narrow gaps for a busker and wider ones for a sidewalk table or a rack of produce.
The , at the southeast corner of Charles Street, is a three storey Edwardian block from 1912 with three brick shopfronts under one roofline. , built in 1986 further south, breaks the pattern with a pastel post modern front wrapped around a covered internal walkway.
Side streets running off the Drive have rows of wood frame houses behind low fences and hedges, with mature trees breaking up the sightlines back toward the storefronts. Driveways and front yards double as parking on these blocks, and a hand lettered for sale sign taped inside a car window is as common as a bicycle chained to a fence.
Cafes and small grocers fill most of the ground floor units. trades from a storefront that dates from 1915. , a restaurant and gallery space, occupies a storefront near the Charles Street corner. opens off the Drive on Charles Street with a lawn and a playground.
Shot in Commercial Drive
Havana, a restaurant and gallery space, sits at 1212 Commercial Drive and was a location for the Netflix film Voicemails for Isabelle in July 2025. The rom com is set in San Francisco and Austin, Texas, but production shot on location in Vancouver rather than in either city.
Voicemails for Isabelle
Havana
Played a location for the film
Havana was a filming location for the Netflix rom com Voicemails for Isabelle, shot on location in July 2025. The source naming the credit does not describe a specific room or shot within the restaurant.
What Commercial Drive can double for
Ballard Avenue in Seattle, Washington
Ballard Avenue's historic district keeps the same scale of brick storefronts built between the 1890s and 1920s, with cast iron columns and slightly uneven facades close to Commercial Drive's own mix of one to three storey blocks. Nothing here documents a production using Ballard for this comparison, so it stands on the architecture alone. Ballard Avenue runs on a diagonal against Seattle's street grid, so a length of block shot that reveals the angle would give away the difference. Try searching cast iron columns now.
Northeast Alberta Street in Portland, Oregon
Northeast Alberta Street runs past small one and two storey houses on its side streets, the same scale relationship Commercial Drive has with its own residential cross streets. Storefronts along Alberta sit in renovated low buildings similar in height and width to Commercial Drive's own shopfronts, though no production is documented using the street for this comparison. Large painted murals cover many building walls along Alberta Street, which would need to be avoided or dressed out to keep the frame from looking distinctly Portland. Try searching renovated low buildings now.
College Street in Toronto, Ontario
College Street west of Bathurst Street runs past a similar row of low brick storefronts with sidewalk cafes serving an Italian community, a similar mix to Commercial Drive's own restaurant heavy stretch. The comparison is speculative, since nothing documents a production using College Street to stand in for Commercial Drive or the reverse. College Street runs under an active streetcar line with overhead wire, which would need to be framed out of a wide shot to avoid the giveaway. Try searching sidewalk cafes now.
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