A Dundas Street strip shaped by 1970s political refugees
Little Portugal's Bakeries
Family bakeries along Dundas Street West, anchored around custard tarts and Portuguese pastries, trace back to waves of Portuguese immigrants who reshaped this stretch of the city starting in the 1950s.
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Little Portugal, centred on Dundas Street West between Little Italy and Parkdale, is one of Toronto's most food-defined neighbourhoods — and its family bakeries are a direct product of a specific wave of immigration.
Refugees and family bakeries
Portuguese immigration to the area began in the 1950s and intensified in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as political refugees fled Portugal's Estado Novo dictatorship and, later, the upheaval of the 1974 Carnation Revolution. Family bakeries opened along Dundas Street West to serve the growing community — Nova Era Bakery, which started in Little Portugal and has since expanded to roughly ten locations, and Caldense Bakery among them — anchoring the neighbourhood's identity in century-old, low-rise storefronts.
Pastéis de nata
The signature draw is pastéis de nata — small custard tarts with a flaky, caramelized top, a Portuguese classic that Toronto's bakeries turn out fresh daily alongside other traditional breads and pastries. The strip is informally nicknamed "Rua Açores," a nod to the Azorean immigrants who shaped much of the community.
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