New pop-up market series brings baked goods and beer together in Toronto

There’s a new pop-up market series in Toronto that’s bringing together two great things you don’t always see together in the same room: baked goods and beer.

Baked and Brews is a new project from the people behind Local MRKT, which was launched in 2022 by a pair of small business owners who have attended markets all over Ontario for over 10 years, Richard Ramsuchit and Dayna Persaud.

“We’ve hosted our branded pop-ups, managed wholesale accounts, retail distribution in Hudson’s Bay, Winners, Marshalls and Homesense and worked with other brands to create their products. We visited many markets over the years, but after the pandemic several markets stopped operating, and also newer ones started,” Ramsuchit tells YourCityWithIn.com.

“We started vending with the new ones and found there were gaps in the organization, marketing and curation of these events. We asked ourselves with all our small business experience, markets, retail, wholesale, marketing and beyond, what if we could host a market from a vendor perspective, how could we do this differently keeping the vendor top of mind and provide what we would expect.”

With that, Local MRKT was born. Fast forward to 2025, and the pair are at it again with brand new pop-up market series Baked and Brews. They were inspired to launch the market series because of the overwhelming number of baker applications they receive for their markets, and because they’ve visited many Ontario breweries and Ramsuchit says “most have cool spaces that some have never seen.”

However, global events also increased their interest in launching a new event series.

“In the past few months, the entire view on supporting local businesses started to rise and people became more aware,” says Ramsuchit.

“Speaking with some of the previous brewery employees and owners, we heard that the tariffs had impacted their bottom line, we thought this would be the right time to start hosting these events. Eat local, drink local, support local.”

So far, pop-ups have taken place at Brunswick Bierworks and Something in the Water.

“We’ve had a positive response from the breweries themselves, the vendors like the idea of the space and pop-up,” says Ramsuchit.

“It’s much different than our artisan markets, and who doesn’t love baked goods? We’ve seen some pretty cool cookies, brownies and sauces from our first two events.”

Goodies available at Baked and Brews events have included cupcakes, madeleines, shortbread, cake rings and cinnamon rolls.

“This is something we can see growing into its own brand, event series and following,” says Ramsuchit.

“We want to always be building community. We’ve been fortunate to partner with many organizations and meet many small business owners. The goal is to grow into a hub of small business resources to our vendor network, from starting the business to the day you open your front doors. We want to be there for the journey and help each business owner overcome any challenges they may face.”

The next Baked and Brews is planned for June 1 at Great Lakes Brewery in Etobicoke.