Toronto strip mall to host free night market inspired by Indian subcontinent

Scarborough is set to have its first taste of a one-of-a-kind night market experience, thanks to an initiative by plazaPops at Wexford Heights, which works to transform strip mall parking spaces into public gathering spaces that promote small businesses, culture and community.

The upcoming Wexford Dhaba is poised to be a night market and fair, or mela, that celebrates the food and culture of the diaspora from the Indian subcontinent.

It promises to host a variety of local vendors, restaurants and musicians. Handcrafted wares and cuisine from across the Indian subcontinent, like panipuri, will be among the offerings.

Local musicians from the Toronto-based South Asian music group Virasat Collective as well as Syrian band Diar will provide live music and entertainment.

Dhabas were pit stops that sprouted along the trade route connecting Kabul in Afghanistan to Punjab, Delhi, and Chittagong in the Indian subcontinent in the 1940s to serve food to long-haul truck drivers.

They depended on these establishments for food, rest, and bathroom breaks before continuing the journey. Some of the states were partitioned when the British left India and became part of what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The cultural legacy of dhabas, however, remained unpartitioned.

These dhabas operate 24/7 and serve rustic local fare that's tasty and nourishing for the body and soul. A fixture of dhabas is the tandoor, or clay oven fed with hot coals, in which a variety of rotis (or flatbreads) are cooked and served with dollops of freshly churned white butter, curries and a side of the most authentic vernacular music that exists only on the cassette players of truck and lorry drivers.

The ambience is in sync with the utilitarian nature of a dhaba's purpose. Plastic chairs, jute-rope charpoys and vibrant truck art dominate the landscape of a dhaba. Today, however, many dhabas have revamped themselves into brick-and-mortar restaurants to cater to the cosmopolitan urban traveller.

This is not the first time that plazaPOPs has planned an initiative around turning strip malls into places of cultural confluence. The team has successfully executed community pop-ups in north Etobicoke and a garden pop-up called WexPOPs at Wexford Heights Plaza.

The event will be held on July 27 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Wexford Blooms 2gether hub site, 2020 Lawrence Ave. E.