Burnaby Heights is the kind of neighbourhood that reveals itself one storefront at a time. Tucked into North Burnaby along Hastings Street, the district runs roughly from Boundary Road to Gamma Avenue, with the land sloping north toward Burrard Inlet and, on a clear day, a wide view of the North Shore Mountains from the side streets above the main strip. Locals just call it The Heights, and the name has stuck for long enough that it now doubles as shorthand for a certain kind of unhurried, walkable commercial street that feels increasingly rare in the region.
What makes The Heights worth a dedicated visit is how much of its character survives from one generation of shopkeepers to the next. Bakeries and family run shops that opened decades ago still operate a few doors down from newer cafes and boutiques, and the whole strip comes together every year for Hats Off Day, a street festival and parade that has become one of Burnaby’s signature community events. This guide covers the shops and restaurants that give the street its identity, the neighbourhood’s roots as a streetcar era commercial district, the festival that defines its summer calendar, and a few practical notes for visiting.
A Streetcar Era Main Street
Burnaby Heights owes its shape to a streetcar line. When service began running along Hastings Street in the early twentieth century, a commercial strip grew up around the stops, and that basic pattern, a compact row of shops facing a single busy street, has defined the neighbourhood ever since. Unlike a lot of suburban commercial areas that were master planned around car access decades later, The Heights still carries the scale of a streetcar main street: narrow storefronts, shared walls, and a sidewalk that stays busy because everything is close enough to reach on foot.
That history is part of why the district feels different from a typical strip mall or big box corridor. The buildings along Hastings Street were built to be walked past slowly, with window displays meant to catch a passerby’s eye rather than a driver’s, and more than a century later that street level rhythm is still the main reason people come back. Side streets running north and south off Hastings carry rows of older houses, some of them recognized as heritage homes, which adds a residential backdrop to the shopping strip and reinforces the sense that this is a neighbourhood first and a destination second.
The Heights Merchants Association, the business improvement association that represents the district today, traces the commercial strip’s identity directly back to that early streetcar era, and much of its current promotional work leans on the idea of continuity, of a street that has always been a gathering place for the surrounding community rather than a stop on the way to somewhere else.
Independent Shops and Longtime Favourites
The retail mix along Hastings Street is dominated by independent, locally owned businesses rather than chains, which is unusual for a commercial strip of this size in Metro Vancouver. Bakeries, specialty grocers, butchers, gift shops, and service businesses sit side by side, and a number of them have been run by the same families for decades, giving the street a continuity that newer commercial developments rarely manage.
A few businesses have become genuine neighbourhood institutions. Bakeries with long histories on the street draw customers from across Burnaby for their bread and pastries, and a family run ice cream and soda fountain shop a few blocks away has been serving sundaes and milkshakes to generations of the same families. Specialty food shops carrying imported and gourmet goods sit alongside more everyday grocers and cafes, which means a walk down Hastings Street tends to turn into a longer errand than planned, simply because there is always one more window worth stopping at.
The Heights Merchants Association maintains an online directory of current shops and restaurants, which is worth checking before a visit since storefronts do change over time even on a street known for longevity. What tends to stay constant is the overall feel of the district: independent operators, personal service, and a sense that the people behind the counter actually live in the neighbourhood they serve. Readers looking for a broader survey of where to eat across the city can also see our guide to the best restaurants in Burnaby for options beyond this one strip.
Hats Off Day and the Community Calendar
The single biggest event on the Burnaby Heights calendar is Hats Off Day, a street festival and parade that has run along Hastings Street since the late 1980s, growing out of an even earlier grassroots community celebration from the early 1980s. What started as a small sidewalk gathering organized by local merchants has grown into one of Burnaby’s largest single day events, closing off a long stretch of Hastings Street to traffic and filling it with a parade, live entertainment, food vendors, and market stalls.
The parade itself is the centrepiece, typically featuring local school marching bands, community groups, dance troupes, and floats sponsored by neighbourhood businesses, moving down Hastings Street to an audience that lines the sidewalks several deep in places. The festival draws visitors from well beyond North Burnaby, and it has become something of an unofficial kickoff to summer for a lot of Burnaby families, timed for the first Saturday of June each year.
Hats Off Day is organized by the Heights Merchants Association, and it reflects the same community first identity that defines the rest of the neighbourhood, a festival built by local shopkeepers for the street they operate on, rather than an event imported from outside. The Heights also hosts smaller seasonal traditions through the rest of the year, including a Halloween event for families and a winter lights display along Hastings Street that runs from late fall into early spring.
Getting Around the Heights
Burnaby Heights is built for walking, and the compact scale of the strip means most visitors park once and cover the whole district on foot rather than moving the car between stops. The neighbourhood has a mix of on street parking and dedicated lots serving the commercial strip, and because the district predates car centric planning, spaces can be tighter than newer shopping areas, especially on weekends and during Hats Off Day itself.
Bus service runs along Hastings Street connecting the neighbourhood to the rest of Burnaby and into Vancouver, which makes The Heights reasonably accessible without a car for anyone coming from elsewhere in the region. The slope of the land means the north side streets climb noticeably away from Hastings, and a short walk up any of the cross streets rewards visitors with views toward Burrard Inlet and the North Shore Mountains that most people driving through the district on Hastings Street never notice.
The Name and the Neighbourhood
The Heights takes its name simply from its elevation, the land rises from Burrard Inlet up to the ridge that Hastings Street runs along, and that rise is what gives the side streets their views and gives the neighbourhood its identity as a distinct place within North Burnaby rather than just an extension of the surrounding city. The commercial district that residents now think of as the heart of the neighbourhood grew directly out of the streetcar service that once ran the length of Hastings Street.
Today the district is represented by the Heights Merchants Association, a business improvement association covering several hundred member businesses and property owners along the strip. The association promotes the neighbourhood’s shops and restaurants, organizes Hats Off Day and the district’s other seasonal events, and maintains the sense of a shared, cooperative main street that has defined The Heights since its earliest days as a streetcar stop.
Tips for Visiting Burnaby Heights
Come hungry. The concentration of bakeries, cafes, and specialty food shops along Hastings Street means a visit tends to turn into a grazing tour whether that was the plan or not, and many of the longest running businesses on the strip are food focused for exactly that reason.
If your visit lines up with Hats Off Day, arrive early and expect road closures along the festival stretch of Hastings Street. Parking fills quickly and the parade draws a large crowd, so a plan to arrive on foot or by bus makes for a much easier day than trying to find parking close to the action.
Check the Heights Merchants Association directory before you go, since it lists current shops, restaurants, and hours across the district and is the most reliable way to confirm a specific business is still open before making a special trip.
Questions Often Asked
Where exactly is Burnaby Heights?
Burnaby Heights is a neighbourhood in North Burnaby along Hastings Street, generally bounded by Boundary Road to the west and Gamma Avenue to the east, with the land sloping north toward Burrard Inlet.
What is Hats Off Day?
Hats Off Day is an annual street festival and parade held along Hastings Street in Burnaby Heights, typically on the first Saturday of June. It grew out of a grassroots community celebration from the early 1980s and the parade tradition has run since the late 1980s, now drawing large crowds for a day of parade, live entertainment, and vendors.
Is Burnaby Heights good for walking and shopping?
Yes. The commercial strip along Hastings Street is compact and walkable, with a dense concentration of independent bakeries, cafes, specialty food shops, and other locally owned businesses that make it easy to park once and explore the whole district on foot.
Who organizes events in Burnaby Heights?
The Heights Merchants Association, a business improvement association representing the neighbourhood’s shops and property owners, organizes Hats Off Day along with other seasonal events on the district’s community calendar.
How did Burnaby Heights get its commercial district?
The neighbourhood’s shopping strip grew up around a streetcar line that began running along Hastings Street in the early twentieth century, and the compact, walkable scale of that original streetcar era main street still defines the district today.
