The scent of warm babka drifting down Augusta Avenue is the latest addition to Kensington Market's sensory tapestry, and it's drawing crowds. Babka & Beyond, a bakery specialising in Eastern European breads and pastries, opened in January to immediate acclaim — and is reconnecting Toronto's Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish communities with baking traditions that were in danger of being forgotten.
Owner Marta Kowalski, whose grandparents emigrated from Kraków to Toronto in the 1950s, spent two years travelling through Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Hungary, apprenticing with village bakers and collecting recipes that have been passed down orally for centuries. "These breads aren't in cookbooks," she says. "They live in grandmothers' hands. I had to go find them."
The bakery's menu rotates weekly but always features Kowalski's signature chocolate babka — a recipe from a 90-year-old baker in Lublin that uses a 72-hour cold fermentation — alongside challah, pampushky (Ukrainian garlic rolls), kürtőskalács (Hungarian chimney cakes), and a rye sourdough made with caraway and honey that has already developed a cult following.
The shop's location in Kensington Market feels historically apt. The neighbourhood was Toronto's primary Jewish market district through the mid-20th century, and several longtime residents have told Kowalski that her babka tastes like what their grandparents used to buy on Baldwin Street in the 1960s.
"A man came in last week and took one bite of the challah and started crying," Kowalski recounts. "He said it tasted like his bubbe's kitchen in 1972. That's the kind of thing that makes this work feel like more than just baking."
Kowalski employs four bakers and has started a Saturday morning baking class where participants learn to make one traditional bread per session. The classes, which accommodate 12 students, sell out within hours of being posted. She also donates unsold bread to the Good Shepherd Centre around the corner.
Plans for the coming months include a collaboration with neighbouring coffee shop Jimmy's Coffee and an Easter series featuring traditional Polish mazurek and Ukrainian paska. "Kensington Market has always been a place where cultures come to eat together," Kowalski says. "I'm just adding another seat at the table."