Decades before the city of York became the Toronto we know today, the St. Lawrence Market was a cultural gathering point. Over the year's it's been a place for city council, farmers, fishermen and unique artisan shops. It's been destroyed by fires and rebuilt again. It's brought small town life to the city's core, with shops run by families spanning several generations. This lush history is why National Geographic named it the world's best market last year.  
"This farmers market emporium has operated since 1803, when it cohabited with Toronto’s city hall. Redeveloped between the 1970s and 1990s after long neglect, the area’s mix of homes and businesses showcases urban regeneration. More than 120 retailers dispense everything from seafood to coffee," National Geographic said in a post. 

 

So when this weekend's warm weather inspired a need to barbeque, it only made sense to head down to the city's largest market to collect barbeque fixings. Many of the stalls and businesses have been there for decades and contain a strong familial thread that weaves the market together. Brown Brothers Meats is one of the oldest. The Brown family opened its shop back in 1895, but retired in 1976. It was then bought by Anthony Gasparro.  

 

Saturdays at the market are so busy, tours are no longer offered. But Pat, one of the butchers at Brown's, spares a moment to talk about the work he's been doing for the past four decades. He points proudly to a photo displayed behind him, a family portrait of all the original employees of Brown's taken in the 1890's. 

 

"You kind of get addicted to working here," he says. "I've been here for 40 years and we continue the same tradition." But there's more to it than that and in a sentiment that echoes everyone I speak with at the market, its biggest foundation is not the landmark architecture, but the people who make the market thrive.

 

"You meet everybody from prime ministers to people on the street," he says. 

 

The original building was lost to the Great Fire of Toronto in 1849. Fire consumed much of what had been deemed "Market Block" by lieutenant governor Peter Hunter when the market opened 46 years before. It tore through buildings from King Street East to Adelaide, Church Street to Jarvis. In 1850, the St Lawrence Hall was built. A year later, a new market was added at the corner of Front Street and Jarvis, where both still stand today. Additional vendors now also set up shop outside while buskers perform nearby. It is there we meet photographer Stephen Zaitsov, a Mick Jagger-like character who has been selling his prints of landmark Toronto locations as an extension of his photography business outside the market for three years.

 

Back inside, we pick up sausages at The Sausage King, who, like most of the butchers at the market, use Ontario raised meats. The Sausage King promotes its humane approach and single-farm, pasture raised livestock proudly on its sign. A variety of chicken, turkey, pork and lamb sausages are available. The products are all gluten free and flavour enhancers come in the form of leeks and spices, not artificial additives. 

 

To complement, we wait in lines to buy buns and bread downstairs at the Stonemill Bake House, maneuver through the crowds to buy chicken skewers from Witteveen Meats for $2.50 each, and pick up more produce than we can carry along the way. Much of the produce isn't local yet, but as the warmer months come this will change. I leave with two Californian Hass avocados that, later when I slice into them, produce the ever-so-satisfying emerald green rim that so often accompanies a perfectly ripe avocado. 

 

No tour to the St. Lawrence market is complete without visiting its many artisan cheese shops. Olympic Cheese Mart is the original and now also carries one of the largest selections of local and imported cheeses in the city. Like many of the others, it's all in the family. George Tsioros opened the shop more than 50 years ago and, as he prepares to celebrate his 68th birthday, can still be found working there to this day.

 

"I actually grew up in the market, but I've been here fulltime since 2007," his son Nick Tsioros tells me between sample offerings of the shop's finest cheeses. I ask him if he's ever going to take it over. "That’s the hope one day," he says, "but my dad is never going to stop working. He loves it here. You come here every day, all the people you know are here." Nick works alongside his younger brother and older sister, who runs a second location up in Markham. Again, Tsioros says working at the market is all about the people. 

 

"The St. Lawrence Market is a really happening place and you meet everybody, not just people who live in the city, but people from all over the world. You never know who's going to walk in," he says. 

 

I walk away with the highly recommended cheese by Sartori BellaVitano--an American asiago washed in raspberry ale--and a deep sense of the community and family that makes the St. Lawrence Market so special. 

 

 

Sheena Lyonnais is Yonge Street's managing editor. This piece is the first in a series exploring the city's history and what it's like today. You can follow her on Twitter @SheenaLyonnais.