This new sort-of-secret seafood spot is hiding above a west-end bakery

A certain kind of magic happens when three creative hospitality vets open a restaurant together—and that’s certainly the case with the Gemini, a new Basque-ish affair on Dundas West. Combining New York cool, old-world tavern warmth and the charm of your kooky friend’s house, it’s the kind of place that feels like an instant institution. It’s also a welcome counterpoint to the big-ticket steakhouses that have dominated Toronto’s restaurant scene over the past couple of years.

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This past October, Jenny Ware, Mike Couvillon and Craig Spence (whose collective CV includes stints at Bernhardt’s, Dreyfus, Jamil’s and Midfield Wine Bar) got the keys to the clandestine 35-seat room, accessed by an unmarked stairway above Caldense Bakery.

“It’s been a collaboration conceptualizing the restaurant and renovating the space, but it’s really Jenny’s vision, and we’re assisting with that vision,” says Spence. That vision: a comfy and fun place to get an interesting glass of wine and a cute plate of food. The dining room is clad in warm wood, church pews and vintage light fixtures, and guests with a discerning eye will spot funky blown-glass clown decanters and oddball tchotchkes tucked into corners. Even the bathroom is quirky. “The mood board for it was a gnome’s after-hours club in the basement of a lighthouse,” says Ware.

The menu is a selection of fresh and whimsical fish-forward shared plates. Ware created a dream list of dishes around visual presentation first, often taking creative inspiration from restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Then head chef Ken Envidia “Ken-ified” them into existence. “I try to do well by the team’s idea and then add to it,” says Envidia. “I bring whatever inspires me—the people around me or the Filipino, Mexican, Southeast Asian or Chinese flavours that I grew up with.”

Wine is the star of the drink menu here, even when it comes to the cocktails. Couvillon created an unfussy list of tipples that prizes sherry and vermouth—drinks that won’t erase the menu’s bright flavours. “At other restaurants, we’ve all served someone an espresso martini with a delicate piece of fish and winced,” says Spence. “So Mike spent a lot of time thinking about how the same flavours Ken is using in the kitchen could overlap in the cocktails—there’s a really citrusy pineapple sauce for a pork dish that tastes amazing with the sherry cobbler, for example.”

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Ware and Spence also run Bittern Imports, a mostly natural, low-intervention wine import agency, so the wine list offers a global smattering of exciting bottles including a few gems they’ve been sitting on for the right time. “Some of the producers we work with can only send us four cases of something really special, and we’ve squirrelled that stuff away for the past few years,” says Ware. “We’re excited to share those back vintages for sure, but the Gemini’s list also has a big mix of bottles from all over that speak well to the food.”

Despite all the team’s curatorial thinking, the Gemini manages to resist feeling overworked. Instead, it feels personal: a little funny, a little romantic and just the right amount of weird.