Saskatoon's Bakery Crawl: A Downtown Cycling Tour

Saskatoon’s downtown bakery scene is vibrant and cozy, blending modern artisan cafes with creative sweet shops and neighborhood staples. On this cycling tour, you'll graze your way through six family-owned bakeries and cafés, sampling sourdough pastries, fancy donuts, and fresh-made bagels. You'll also ride past some of the city's most interesting architecture and riverfront landmarks along the way.

The tour starts at The Night Oven Bakery, where heritage grain sourdough loaves are milled and baked on-site in a wood-fired oven. From there, you'll cycle through the warehouse district along 24th Street, past Chicago-style brick buildings from the early 1900s that now house offices and condos. You'll stop at Citizen Café and Bakery, known for its gluten-free and vegan options, including their colourful, flaky pop tarts. Then you'll pass the Great Western Brewery – saved from closure in 1989 when 16 employees pooled their own money to buy it.

After fuelling up at Darkside Donuts – where sourdough brioche replaces the standard yeast base – and Sparrow Coffee, famous for its house-made bagels and cream cheese, you'll ride through the City Park neighbourhood beneath a canopy of century-old elm trees. After the final stop at Pique, the route then drops down to the Meewasin Trail along the South Saskatchewan River, passing the Bessborough Hotel, the Vimy Memorial bandshell, and the Founders Statue honouring Chief Whitecap and John Lake, whose 1882 meeting set Saskatoon's origins in motion. The tour ends at Gather Local Market, where Sure-O's serves hand-crafted Mexican churros made to order from a family recipe.

On this 30-minute cycling tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Sample sourdough croissants, made with local grains, milled on-site at The Night Oven
• Try Pique's bison hand pie and crème brûlée donut, from the team behind Broadway's long-running Calories restaurant
• Spot the 1907 Canadian Pacific Railway station, now repurposed as a restaurant
• Ride past the Sturdy Stone Building, a ten-story Brutalist landmark named for two early Saskatchewan legislators
• See St. Paul's Cathedral, whose stained glass windows were added in 1945 to honour lives lost in World War II
• Cross the foot bridge and cycle past Josh Jacobson's animal silhouette mural on the Senator Sid Buckwold Bridge overpass

Bring kitchen shears, a few friends, and a healthy appetite – Saskatoon's best independent bakers are waiting for you.

If you prefer to walk, it will take a little over an hour from the first to last stop. Directions assume you are cycling, but you can easily follow them on foot.