The Stop's Night Market, Part II

The party wasn’t over as I was back again the next evening for night two of The Stop’s Night Market. The gorgeous weather continued, and everyone's spirits were high after all the positive buzz from the night before. The food carts remained the same, with only a few minor tweaks and signage changes to accommodate the changeover of the vendors.


While the first evening featured a lot of newcomers to the Night Market, the second evening felt like a reunion of sorts, with many returning vendors on hand like GwaiLo, The Stockyards, Yours Truly, Hawker Bar, and more, alongside the newbies. The only booth change was The Stop CFC’s fun-looking “Come N' Get It” cart, designed by Lift Office.






Like the night before, there was a lot of food to be had, but here are some of my favourite hits from night two:


Say the word “wings” and you instantly have my attention. That’s how Hawker Bar caught my attention, serving up Naked Singapore Wings. Unlike most fried wings, Hawker Bar fried them batterless (hence the “naked”) and seasoned them with a mix of spices. They came out perfectly crispy, with a little heat, and finger-licking good.


One of my favourite restaurants, Richmond Station, was dishing out their housemade all-beef hot dogs, two ways. I particularly loved the version with a sweet and tangy beet relish—a much fancier and delicious alternative to your average ketchup and sweet relish.


The Gabardine was serving up a neat Indian-inspired dish—Ontario pickerel tikka on bhel puri with tamarind chutney and coconut yogurt sauce. It was an innovative twist on chicken tikka, and the fish was bursting with flavour. The crunchy puffed rice in the bhel puri added a bite of texture.


The Farmhouse Tavern was serving up one of their popular brunch dishes from the restaurant—the Barnyard Burger. The burger consisted of a beef patty made with a blend of chuck and short ribs, a thick slice of pork belly, and topped with a little goat cheese, a creamy tomato sauce, and a fried egg. It was beefy. It was juicy. It was oh-so-delicious.


It’s been a while since I’ve seen Babi & Co., and it was great to see Cindy and her team at The Stop Night Market again. Ayam Buns were on the menu—padang-style pulled chicken curry stuffed into a fried housemade Chinese bun with slices of cucumber and fried shallots. The curry was incredibly flavourful, the chicken melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the bread crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.



The evening ended on a sweet note, with a Garam Masala Sugar Donut from Paulette’s Chicken & Donuts—light and cakey with the perfect balance of sugar and spice (and everything nice). And with panna cotta being one of my favourite desserts, I was delighted by The Grove’s visually stunning offering—silky smooth lemon verbana cream, bursting with fresh strawberry flavour. My only regret of the evening was not having returned to the booth earlier for seconds before they all disappeared!



Stratus, Malivoire, Dillon’s Distillery, Amsterdam Brewery, and Reunion Coffee, amongst others, were on hand to keep folks from getting thirsty.

I’m not going to lie, after two straight nights of eating my way through the Night Market, I was tuckered out (I know...cry me a river, right?). I didn’t get a chance to hit as many vendors the second night around as I did the first, as my stomach was slowing down much quicker. But a huge kudos and thank you to all the food and drink vendors and their teams, as well as the designers, for participating in the Night Market and contributing to such a great cause. They donated their time and energy to keep all of us attendees happy and full, and they all did a great job!







Lastly, a huge congratulations and thank you to the fine folks at The Stop for putting on yet another fantastic event. While this is a very young event, the Night Market is one of the most impeccably organized events I’ve ever attended, and everyone seems to come out happy and impressed with what’s to offer. This year's slogan was "Eat Good, Do Gooder." Well, we certainly ate well, and did very well in helping The Stop raise $115,000 for their anti-hunger programs. This is nearly double what was raised last year, and is sure to do a lot of good things to help out the community. A big shout out to all the volunteers who helped out at the Night Market as well—all of you were so gracious and helpful throughout the evening, and ensured the event ran as smoothly as possible.

If you didn’t get a chance to attend the event this year, I highly recommend you get yourself a ticket to attend next year. You’ll be able to enjoy a lot of fantastic food from Toronto’s finest chefs, endless glasses of wine, beer and cocktails, and most importantly, do a good deed.




The Numbers:

• 1 great cause—both nights’ ticket sales will be going towards The Stop’s innovative anti-hunger programs
• 2 nights of delicious food and drinks (and the time it took for the tickets to sell out)
• 35 food carts
• 50—cost of one ticket for all you eat and drink
• 82 food and drink vendors
• 113 designers who contributed to designing and creating the one-of-a-kind food carts
• 1,600 tickets sold
• 2,400 attendees
• 115,000—the amount of money raised for The Stop’s anti-hunger programs. That’s enough money to provide three days of healthy food for 9,000 people

As with the first night, there are tons of photos from the event. You can check out my Flickr account for the full photo album from the second evening.
Until next year!