A Toronto bakery has been family-run since the 1970s, earning it the well-deserved reputation as being, quite possibly, the city’s most legendary.
While bids have been made over the years for dishes like Shawarma or Jamaican Patties to be recognized as Toronto’s signature dish, they’ve nonetheless faltered under the gravity of the city’s official signature dish: the peameal bacon sandwich.
Undeniably no-frills at its core, consisting of simply a hefty pile of peameal bacon (which, I might add, is a Toronto invention,) on a fluffy bun, there can be no arguing that the staple is, still, absolutely magical.
It’s kind of a metaphor for Toronto in that way, and no one runs the peameal bacon sandwich show in the city quite like St. Lawrence Market stalwart, Carousel Bakery.
Owned and operated by the Biancolin family for nearly 50 years, the bakery has risen to a level of notoriety few others in Toronto have come close to, being featured everywhere from Anthony Bourdain’s The Layover to The New York Times.
“Well, actually, Carousel Bakery existed in the market before we got involved with it, but it was doing completely different things,” Robert Biancolin, who now runs the bakery alongside his brother, Maurice tells me.
Robert and Maurice Biancolin. Photo by Fareen Karim.
“My father was actually in the butcher business with a partner, and in 1970 it became available, and they took it over.”
Quickly after taking the bakery over, though, the future of not only Carousel Bakery, but St. Lawrence Market itself, was in jeopardy, as calls for the market to be demolished and redeveloped arose in 1971.
It should come as no surprise, though, that such demolition never took place, and, instead, the market underwent massive renovations from 1974 to 1978, ultimately seeing the new-and-improved St. Lawrence Market (and Carousel Bakery) open its doors in 1977.
“Back then, especially in ’77 our focus was to attract, especially in the better weather, the downtown office crowd,” Robert tells me, “and we realized that if you wanted to attract people at lunch hour that worked in the office building, that you’d have to be very efficient, and that’s what we did.”
Various baked goods remain on the menu at Carousel Bakery. Photo by Fareen Karim.
While Carousel was also offering (and still does) a lush array of baked goods, from Portuguese custard tarts to some of the lightest, fluffiest doughnuts this side of Lake Ontario, it was, ultimately, the peameal bacon sandwich — and, as Robert points out, the speed with which one can be assembled — that quickly became a crowd favourite.
“The peameal bacon sandwich […] really attracted and served as a magnet for people to come to the market, both locals and tourists,” Robert says. “For the locals, it became a tradition to come down to the market, especially on a Saturday, and have a peameal bacon sandwich.”
In the early days, Robert tells me, his father, leveraging his butcher expertise, cured the bakery’s bacon himself, which, he believes, played a major key in Carousel’s becoming one of the integral pillars of peameal bacon sandwiches in Toronto, alongside the bakery’s unwavering commitment to quality, even after decades.
Behold, the all-mighty peameal bacon sandwich. Photo by Hector Vasquez.
After about 48 years in business, Robert tells me that the knowledge of just how many people have experienced Carousel Bakery never really gets old.
“I mean, I’ve been on travels, and I’ve been pin-pointed by people that say ‘I know you,’ and I said, ‘well, the only place that could come from is from the market,’ and this happened countless times,” Robert tells me.
“It’s unbelievable, really,” Robert says. “But what’s great about it is that you have long standing connections with with patrons, especially people from Toronto and the GTA, who have brought their children. Their children grew up, their children, bring their children now and remind me how long I’ve been here.”
Toronto has been, particularly in recent years, in an era of development; with new buildings and subway lines rendering the city unrecognizable year over year, which is, sometimes, at least, a good thing.
Carousel Bakery. Photo by Fareen Karim.
Despite that, though, there’s a certain stir in the heart when it comes to old classics, and, particularly, the ones who’ve been able to skirt the many difficulties that strike them over time.
Those businesses, I believe, deserve celebration, and perhaps none are more worthy than Carousel Bakery.
You can visit Carousel Bakery on the upper level of St. Lawrence Market, Tuesday to Sunday.
