Quietly magical Toronto cafe is family-friendly third place

Toronto firms Denizens of Design and DS Studio have turned a former dive bar in the city’s Junction neighborhood into a family-friendly “third place” called Willow Play Cafe. The space combines a cafe for adults with a play area for kids, all wrapped in walnut-paneled interiors that feel more like a grown-up living room than a typical indoor playground.

The project responds to the growing number of young families in the area. Instead of bright primary colors and industrial fixtures common in children’s play centers, the designers focused on making the venue feel like a place adults would actually want to hang out in. Walls and ceilings are covered in walnut panels. The service counter at the front has a wavy front and checkerboard linoleum floor, where customers order drinks while kids take off their shoes and store them in cubby holes under low benches.

“So many of us grew up lingering in cafes, watching the world go by, dreaming and daydreaming,” said Denizens of Design principal Dyonne Fashina. “We wanted to create a place where parents could reclaim that ritual, but now with their children beside them. The design had to feel familiar and grown up, yet quietly magical.”

An arched portal with a keyhole-shaped cutout leads to the main seating area. There, a floral-patterned bench with a red-trimmed scalloped backrest runs along one wall. Small round cafe tables and vintage bentwood chairs face the play zone, where colorful interactive elements emerge from the millwork. DS Studio principal Dina Sarhane, herself a parent, said seating had to be integrated directly into the children’s area so caregivers feel close to their kids rather than separated from them.

A play area designed like a willow tree, not a jungle gym

The play zone takes its concept from a willow tree. Two-tone green foam steps lead up to a raised mezzanine hideout, and a red slide brings kids back down. An interactive wall with illuminated pegs and a pegboard of colorful cogs keep children busy. Fashina described the interior as if it were part of a story, where a cafe becomes a forest and a wall becomes a game. Play, she said, is not added on but embedded into the architecture.

Arched niches branch off into rooms for workshops or parties, where walnut panels are paired with yellow bead details, vintage lighting, and a floral ceiling installation. “We wanted everything to feel like it belongs,” Fashina said. “Nothing is decorative for its own sake. The cafe and the play world are one.”

It’s not entirely clear how well the concept works in practice. While the designers argue that embedding play into the architecture makes the space feel more natural, some parents might wonder if the fixed installations can adapt to different ages and interests over time. The establishment’s reliance on a single aesthetic concept could also limit its appeal to families who prefer more conventional activity areas with clear sightlines and easily movable equipment.

Denizens of Design previously designed a fast-casual eatery in Toronto with a basketweave ceiling and tartan-influenced mosaic floor. Other venues around the world have tried similar approaches, including a play cafe in Dalian, China, based on an imaginary fairyland drawing. But Willow Play Cafe is one of the few to deliberately avoid the typical primary-colored play-center look.

Photography by Scott Norsworthy captures the walnut interiors and the whimsical touches — the scalloped backrest, the keyhole cutout, the foam steps that mimic tree branches. The interior feels like a compromise between adult comfort and child curiosity, though it’s unclear how many families will actually choose it over a simpler coffee shop with a separate playpen.

For now, the spot seems to fill a niche for parents who remember lingering in cafes before kids and want to bring that experience back, even if the children are busy sliding down a red slide embedded in the same wood veneer. The design avoids the trap of being too cute or too sterile. It’s a quiet experiment in making a third place that doesn’t force adults to choose between a conversation and watching their toddler.