Geraldine, Parkdale’s favourite absinthe spot, is no more
When the Parkdale restaurant Geraldine opened in the summer of 2013, it immediately commanded notice. It was an elegant throwback to La Belle Époque, with its gorgeous white marble bar top, elaborate light fixtures and antique dinnerware. The complex cocktails, absinthe fountain and excellent raw bar drew raves—and our restaurant critic Mark Pupo named it one of his best new restaurants of 2014. Then, earlier this month, co-owner Alexandra Albert announced that she was closing the restaurant. Its last day in business was August 20th. “Sometimes,” Albert tells us, “immediate success and long-term financial success aren’t tied together.”
Albert opened Geraldine with Peter Ramsay, a former sous chef at Cowbell, but she herself had no industry experience and now says she’ll seek an education before opening her next place. “Geraldine was definitely a project of love,” she says. Alex Molitz, who was the chef at the time the restaurant closed, laments that the city has lost one of its most interesting rooms. “For a moment in time, it was a very special place.” He’s leaving Toronto to work at a restaurant in Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands. No word yet on what might open in Geraldine’s place, but Albert says that her former bar manager, Michael Mooney, is at work on a new project elsewhere in the city.
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