A market since 1803, in a building wrapped around the old city hall, and the peameal bacon sandwich is not optional.
There has been a market on this site since 1803, and the South Building incorporates the shell of Toronto’s second city hall of 1845 — you can still see the council chamber’s arched brickwork inside, and the front portico is the original.
It is consistently ranked among the best food markets in the world, and unlike a great many such markets it is still primarily where people shop.
The peameal bacon sandwich
Toronto’s contribution to world cuisine, and it comes from this building.
Peameal bacon is boneless pork loin, wet-cured and rolled in cornmeal — originally in ground yellow peas, hence the name. It is not what Americans call Canadian bacon, which is smoked; peameal is not smoked at all.
Carousel Bakery in the South Building has sold the sandwich since 1977 and it is what most people queue for: three or four slices on a kaiser roll, mustard optional and correct.
Paddington’s Pump does a version too, and locals argue about which is better.
What else
Around 120 vendors across the buildings.
Cheese at Alex Farm and Scheffler’s. Fish at Domenic’s and Seafront. Mustard at Kozlik’s, made in Toronto since 1948. Bagels, charcuterie, produce, a butcher row, and Buster’s Sea Cove for fish tacos.
St Urbain for Montreal-style bagels — smaller, sweeter and denser than New York’s, boiled in honey water and baked in a wood oven.
The Saturday farmers’ market
In the North Building, Saturdays only, from 5am to mid-afternoon. Ontario growers, in season, and it is the real thing rather than a display.
There is also a Sunday antique market in the same space.
The North Building was demolished in 2015 for a new one; construction ran long and the market operated from a temporary structure for years. Check what has opened.
Hours
South Building: Tuesday to Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday.
North Building farmers’ market: Saturday only.
Go early. By eleven on a Saturday the aisles are difficult.
Practicalities
Cash and card. Seating is limited — there is a mezzanine upstairs in the South Building and benches outside.
King station on Line 1 is ten minutes’ walk. The Distillery District is twenty minutes east and the two make an obvious pairing.
More Food & Drink
The Danforth and Greektown
Two kilometres of Greek restaurants along Danforth Avenue, and a food festival in August that closes the road.
Little Italy and College Street
Espresso bars from the 1950s, a street that fills when Italy plays, and some of the best restaurants in the city on the blocks around it.