A team of Toronto’s restaurant-industry heavyweights is behind Summerhill’s new seafood spot
Including an 11-time oyster-shucking champ
Name: Seahorse Restaurant
Contact: 1226 Yonge St., seahorserestaurant.ca, @seahorsetoronto
Neighbourhood: Summerhill
Owners: Simon Bower, Richard Renaud, Eamon Clark
Chef: Federico Garcia
Accessibility: Not fully accessible
In 2020, during the height of the Covid lockdowns, Richard Renaud didn’t turn to sourdough to soothe his idle hands and spiralling mind. Instead, he began roasting coffee beans in his apartment. As luck would have it, he was friends with the owner of now-closed Haute Coffee, which sat at the corner of Dupont and Davenport. “She needed someone to look after the coffee shop because she wanted to temporarily hunker down at her home in BC—and I needed somewhere to sell my coffee and learn the ins and outs of running a shop so I could eventually open my own,” Renaud says.
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Renaud’s first regular customer was veteran restaurateur Simon Bower (Lucien, Mercer Street Grill). “Simon would come in every morning at 7:01 a.m. and order his large drip coffee—at least half of which was milk—and we started getting to know each other,” says Renaud. The two got to chatting about the hospitality industry, which led to cooking up a business plan. “The idea was to buy Haute Coffee and transform it into a café by day, oyster bar by night.”
That deal fell through, but Renaud and Bower persevered, spending the next three years searching for the right space. During that time, their vision evolved. In November of 2024, they brought on Eamon Clark, son of the late Rodney Clark, Toronto’s first real oyster expert. “I’ve known Eamon since he was a year old,” Bower says. “Once we folded him into the partnership, the idea grew into a full-scale seafood restaurant with excellent cocktails and real hospitality—something we all felt had been lost in the city over the years.”
The trio eventually found a space steps from Summerhill station and immediately rolled up their sleeves. They were involved in every inch of the buildout—demo, design, construction, whatever the day demanded. One afternoon, as they were ripping into the ceiling, a crowbar tumbled out of the rafters and clocked Renaud on the head. “It was an antique hidden up there,” he says. “I loved it and used it for the whole build—until it disappeared. Turns out Simon had taken it to be framed as a surprise.”
The final piece fell into place when they brought on Federico Garcia, the former sous-chef of Michelin-starred Quetzal. Landing him was “a total no-brainer,” according to Bower—the kind of decision that hits you over the head just like that old crowbar. With Garcia aboard, the concept finally snapped into focus, right down to small details like a raw-bar-only hour between 4 and 5 p.m.—a daily prelude that sets the tone for a laid-back space offering simple-yet-refined, ethically sourced food and straightforward, thoughtfully prepared drinks in a space designed to feel like a home away from home.
The Food
The straightforward menu stars fresh, ethically sourced seafood, like bright, briny Hokkaido scallop aguachile with yuzu and Calabrian chili oil or a medley of charcoal-grilled saltwater favourites like Moroccan octopus with wild Argentinian shrimp and plump mussels. The menu comes briefly ashore for a house-made pasta dish, but it’s still crowned with East Coast scallops.
The raw bar features a rotating selection of oysters, seafood escabeches, crudo and crustaceans. And the raw-bar hour is already attracting regulars. “I’ve lived my whole life in this neighbourhood, and for me, that really is the goal,” says Bower.
The Drinks
A collection of wine from heavy-hitting regions like France, Spain and Italy is designed to match the ebb and flow of the menu. Meanwhile, a tight list of five signature cocktails favours maturity over mixology, with the standout being their take on the classic amaretto sour, made with amaro instead of bourbon and a few drops of olive oil for a velvety texture.
The Space
Exposed brick, warm wood, tawny leather banquettes and original floors bathed in natural light give the 130-year-old room a sense of history. The focal point is the L-shaped oyster bar, lined with chrome-and-cerulean stools and stocked with all of the day’s catches on ice.
Erin Hershberg is a freelance writer with nearly two decades of experience in the lifestyle sector. She currently lives in downtown Toronto with her husband and two children.
