For Canadians trying to cut back on dining out, gourmet pastries are worth the splurge | Canada Voices

If you find yourself peckish on Toronto’s Harbord Street, 10 bucks doesn’t get you much: you can order Piano Piano’s cheapest snack of marinated olives, four pieces of chicken karaage at Musoshin Ramen or a single fried fillet of basa (no fries) at Harbord Fish & Chips.

Or you could join the ever-present morning queue at Emmer Bakery, where the devoted hope to snatch up a pistachio croissant before they sell out (usually within an hour of opening). A thick smear of decadent pistachio cream is sandwiched between the two halves of airy, honeycombed pastry. Only the tiniest segments of the crispy golden exterior are visible under a studded carpet of viridescent chopped pistachios.

As the cost of dining out becomes increasingly out of reach for Canadians, many are shifting their spending to more affordable luxuries, such as pistachio croissants, slices of Basque cheesecake and scones made with organic flour and imported French butter.

In 2024, retail sales of baked goods – led by bread and pastries – expanded by 7.2 per cent to $11.8-billion, according to federal data. In an Interac survey of 1,500 Canadians this past summer, 30 per cent reported spending more at local bakeries than they did a year ago, with 64 per cent saying spending money on affordable treats improved their mood. In comparison, spending at restaurants has declined by 11 per cent per capita since 2019, according to a recent report from the industry group Restaurants Canada.

“They don’t want to go out and spend $400 on dinner any more,” says Philip Haddad, the owner of Emmer.

Emmer is operating at its highest capacity since it opened four years ago, having quadrupled its production. Even in these colder months, the bakery is producing the same number of pastries as they did during summer peak. The average spend is about $25 a person.

Haddad has raised the price of the pistachio croissant since Emmer first opened from $9 to $10.50, owing to the price of ingredients, but also the labour: They are prepared the previous day and must sit overnight; in the morning they are stuffed and coated. When a price bump of 17 per cent amounts to just $1.50, it’s easier for consumers to swallow.

“It’s a little piece of luxury,” he said. “It’s not a product that I make much on.”

Out in Halfmoon Bay, B.C., Beth Jay likes to treat herself to high-end pastries at her favourite café, Middlechild, in nearby Sechelt. The café sources its goodies from local bakeries including LoneWolf and the Farm: canelés with caramelized crusts and danishes made with organic flour and filled with custard and homemade jam.

As the cost of raw ingredients such as butter and chocolate have shot up in the past few years, these treats have gotten pricier, too. At Middlechild, the fruit danishes are $6.50, cardamom buns are $6.25 and pain au raisin is $6. But unlike cookies or muffins, Jay can’t make them at home, so they are worthy of the occasional splurge.

Jay says she rarely goes out for lunch or brunch with friends any more as the days of $10 sandwiches are long over. Her last lunch order was a grain bowl with brown rice, grated beets, cucumbers, avocado and edamame and she’s still not over the sticker shock.

“It was $18 and I had to go home and eat more because it wasn’t even that much food,” she says.

Price hikes have come after years of razor-thin margins at restaurants following the pandemic, with a steep increase in the cost of labour (11 per cent), ingredients (13 per cent) and insurance (14 per cent) in the past two years, according to Restaurants Canada. Tariffs imposed earlier this year exacerbated the problem.

But at the Montreal patisserie Rhubarbe, which opened in 2010, the pandemic kick-started the business’s most successful years, says owner Stéphanie Labelle, one of the city’s most acclaimed pastry chefs.

On the busiest Saturdays, 300 people would stream through the doors of Rhubarbe: Some would come in for a single croissant or a thick slice of focaccia; others would order a sampling of the bewitching treats in the pastry case, nearly all of which could be purchased in individual portions for $8 or $9: a lemon tart with fat meringue teardrops piped on top, an éclair filled with rich maple crémeux and lofty swirls of pecan-studded vanilla chantilly cream, a slice of dacquoise piled high with cream and crowned with glistening slices of supremed grapefruit.

“I love seeing people’s eyes when they see a dessert and they’re like ‘Oh my god, it’s so good,’” says Labelle.

But even with her business at its peak, the demanding hours were taking a toll on the chef, who had two young children at home, so in summer 2025 she pivoted to catering and selling preordered viennoiseries, with pickup scheduled once a week on Saturdays during a three-hour window. Labelle wondered whether people would still go through all that trouble to purchase a few chocolatines or pear-almond danishes. The answer was yes.

“Some people were like, ‘You’re still gonna have your granola, right?’ ‘You’re still gonna have your pistachio cake?’ ‘You’re still going to make fraisier?’ And that’s why it was like, we gotta stay in the game.”