Yonge and Lawrence After Dark: A Café in an Old Bank Vault, a New Sandwich Counter, and Lawrence Park's Holiday Market Weekends

Since late August, the corner of Yonge and Woburn has had a place that changes over at dinnertime. Baba, at 3204 Yonge St., serves coffee and quick brunch dishes in the morning and becomes a cocktail and charcoal-skewer bar in the evening. A few doors north, Bello! Italian Sandwich Co. lists its 3305 Yonge St. counter as open for dine-in and online orders.

Between now and Christmas, the neighbourhood's holiday calendar is in a church hall on Bayview, a United Church on Lytton Boulevard, the Locke library branch and the Toronto Botanical Garden at Lawrence and Leslie. Each of those afternoons ends within a short trip of a Yonge Street dinner.

The corner at Woburn, and what is behind the vault door

Baba is in the former Chop Hop space at Yonge and Lawrence; Chop Hop closed there in July 2026. It is the first solo restaurant from Michael Medeiros and Kevin Chen, who met while working at One Hazelton and spent years in kitchens across the city before opening on Yonge. Streets of Toronto reported the part most likely to surprise a neighbour walking in for the first time: the room includes a 1920s bank vault covered in disposable-camera photos.

The kitchen centres on an open charcoal grill. Medeiros runs it as head chef and mixes Western and Asian flavours, with dishes such as Mapo tofu with eggs, charcoal skewers, pasta, and plates made with local chocolate. The daytime coffee comes from Library Coffee, a Toronto micro-roaster that Streets of Toronto noted had recently placed 54th on The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops list. Nick Hao of Uh Bar, formerly Slice of Life Bar, wrote the cocktail and mocktail menus. According to blogTO, every evening cocktail is priced at $20 or less, and the restaurant is open seven days a week.

Medeiros explained the day-and-night format to blogTO this way:

"We want Baba to feel familiar from the first visit...a place where people can stop in during the day and return at night for a completely different energy."

The same quote ends with the line most relevant to anyone who lives within walking distance: "The concept is personal to us, but we want it to become part of the neighbourhood."

Why an evening room matters on this stretch

When blogTO covered Baba's opening in August, it described Yonge and Lawrence as having a reputation as "a sleepier stretch" of Yonge Street. Over the past two years, a few addresses north of Lawrence have been chipping away at that reputation, and Baba gives that block something it lacked: a place that is set up for after dinner.

The sequence is short and easy to follow on foot:

1. Pii Nong Thai, 3321 Yonge St. Streets of Toronto reported that the flagship would open on December 7, 2024, with a grand opening on December 21, bringing Thai food and shopping to a single address, with massage services to follow in early 2025.
2. Gus Tacos, 3185 Yonge St. The tacos location was announced in June 2025 as one of two new Gus Tacos openings.
3. Baba, 3204 Yonge St. Café by day and snack bar by night since late August 2026.
4. Bello! Italian Sandwich Co., 3305 Yonge St. Its locations page lists the Yonge counter as open for dine-in or online orders.

From Pii Nong's opening in December 2024 to Baba's in late August 2026 is less than two years, and all four addresses sit within a few blocks of the Lawrence intersection. Only Baba is designed to keep going into the evening. That matters most this month and next, when the afternoons below are full and the obvious next stop is dinner close to home.

The holiday calendar lives in four buildings

Lawrence Park's holiday dates this year are hosted by a church, a garden, a choir and a library. Each one is a short trip from Yonge and Lawrence, and each fits neatly before or after an evening on the strip.

The Toronto Botanical Garden's Holiday EcoMarket is run with For the Love of Markets. It brings in more than 100 local, planet-friendly vendors, with new vendors added each weekend. The Garden suggests bringing a reusable shopping bag or travel mug. Admission is free. Because the vendor list changes between weekends, the November and December dates are two different markets, not one market repeated. The Garden's website also carries a notice that it is open but that some trails are closed because of storm damage, so check its plan-your-visit page before planning a walk around the market.

The Lawrence Park Community Church Christmas Market is a single afternoon at 2180 Bayview Avenue. The church describes it as a festive afternoon of holiday cheer and unique finds, with a silent auction running alongside.

Pax Christi Chorale uses choose-your-price tickets for both performances at ESG United Church. That makes the Saturday 4 p.m. concert an affordable way to start a December evening that ends on Yonge.

The Locke branch's Glow & Fold workshop is the smallest event on the list: one hour on a Tuesday afternoon spent making an illuminated book tree. Registration details are on the Toronto Public Library events listing.

Three weekends, planned from the corner

Seen together, the dates line up with the new evening options on Yonge in a few easy ways.

Friday, November 20. The EcoMarket opens at 2 p.m. and closes at 6 p.m. That leaves time to head back west along Lawrence for dinner, by which point Baba has switched from café to snack bar.

Sunday, November 22. This is the busiest day of the month for the neighbourhood. The Garden's market runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Lawrence Park Community Church market runs from noon to 3 p.m., so both fit into one afternoon on the eastern side of the neighbourhood. Bello's Yonge counter is an easy lunch on the way out, with online ordering if the line is long.

Saturday, December 5. The Pax Christi performance starts at 4 p.m. on Lytton Boulevard. Afterward, Yonge and Lawrence is a short trip north, and the $20 limit on Baba's cocktail list makes it an easy round after the concert.

The EcoMarket's second weekend, December 18 to 20, falls in the last stretch before the holidays. The vendor list changes between weekends, so anything missed in November will probably be replaced by something new.

For more on the streets around these addresses, our Lawrence Park neighbourhood page covers the area's parks, transit and housing styles. Our recent Leaside October guide follows the Bayview shops a little farther south.

If you are spending this season on Woburn, Lytton or the streets off Bayview and want to talk about your own home, whether that means staying, renovating or eventually moving to a different part of the neighbourhood, the team at SW3.ca knows these blocks well. We are happy to compare notes over a coffee at Baba. Contact us.