Chef Elia Herrera Returns to Toronto With a New St. Lawrence Market Spot
A well-regarded name in Toronto’s Mexican food scene is making a return to the city, this time setting up shop in one of its most storied food destinations. Acclaimed third-generation Mexican chef Elia Herrera is expanding her Toronto footprint with Tecolote Market, a contemporary Mexican market and dining concept that opened inside St. Lawrence Market on August 13.
Herrera’s résumé in this city goes back over two decades. Trained at the Culinary Institute of Mexico and seasoned in kitchens across Europe, she moved to Toronto in 2003 and quickly became a fixture of the local food scene — competing on Top Chef Canada’s sixth season and working her way up from pastry chef to executive chef at the now-closed Los Colibris on King West, long considered one of the city’s finest Mexican restaurants. After Los Colibris closed, Herrera pivoted to LosCo Vegan, a plant-based Mexican concept she opened inside Assembly Chef’s Hall in 2019, before eventually heading west to open the acclaimed small-plates restaurant Milpa in Calgary in 2023.
Tecolote itself isn’t entirely new to Toronto, even if this location is. Herrera and her sister Marlene first brought the concept to Kitchen Hub inside Longo’s Liberty Village back in 2022, running it as a pickup-and-delivery operation, before opening a full location at Chefs Hall on Richmond Street West in 2024. The new St. Lawrence Market stall marks the concept’s third Toronto home and its highest-profile one yet.
Landing in St. Lawrence Market comes with obvious advantages: steady foot traffic, a built-in audience of food-focused visitors, and instant credibility from sharing space with some of the city’s most established vendors. For a chef re-establishing her presence in Toronto after years split between cities, it’s a strategic, high-visibility choice.
The full menu for the market location hadn’t been finalized as of opening, but Tecolote’s fast-casual approach centres on fresh corn tortillas made using traditional nixtamalization techniques, alongside cod-battered Baja burritos, tacos and chicken enchiladas — the same style of cooking that’s defined the brand across its previous locations.
Tecolote Market is located on the lower level of the South Market, at 91 Front St. E.