Carousel Bakery

Carousel Bakery is a market stall inside the south building of St. Lawrence Market at 93 Front Street East in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is the best-known place in the city for the peameal bacon sandwich. Peameal bacon, a Canadian cut of pork loin rolled in cornmeal, is griddled to order and piled onto a soft kaiser-style bun, and the sandwich is widely treated as Toronto's signature street-food dish. The stall works as a counter rather than a restaurant: staff take orders at the front, cook on a flat-top in view of the queue, and hand over sandwiches wrapped for eating on the move or at the shared seating areas around the market hall. Cuisine is plain Canadian market fare, with a short menu built around the one emblematic item, and optional extras such as mustard or other simple toppings. The dining space is the market itself, so the atmosphere is busy, loud and informal, with shoppers, office workers and visitors moving between produce, fish and cheese vendors. There is no dress code and no wine or cocktail programme; drinks are limited to what the market and nearby stalls sell. Reservations are not part of the experience. The stall serves first-come customers, and lines grow noticeably at Saturday lunch, when the market is at its fullest. Typical spend is CAD 8-14 per person, roughly USD 6-10, which makes it one of the cheapest signature meals in the city. Because the stall sits in a heritage market hall close to the Financial District and the Distillery area, it combines easily with a walk through the surrounding stalls. Visitors planning a first meal in Toronto often use it as a quick, inexpensive introduction to local food before a heavier dinner elsewhere. Queue length is the main variable, so arriving shortly after opening or in the mid-afternoon lull shortens the wait considerably.