What’s on the menu at General Public, Jen Agg’s gorgeous new restaurant on Geary

Including baked oysters, cheeseburgers and caviar bumps

By Erin Hershberg| Photography by Shlomi Amiga

| October 1, 2024

What's on the menu at General Public, Jen Agg's gorgeous new restaurant on Geary

Name: General Public Contact: 201 Geary Ave., generalpublic.ca, @generalpublic201
Neighbourhood: Wallace-Emerson Owners: Jen Agg, David Greig, James Santon and Jake Skakun Chefs: Executive chef James Santon and chef de cuisine Meaghan Da Silva Accessibility: Accessible

Jen Agg’s latest project is primed to be her biggest culinary achievement to date. Like all her other restaurants (Black Hoof, Rhum Corner, Grey Gardens, Bar Vendetta, Le Swan, Cocktail Bar), this one—a confidently showy two-level, 100-seat space outfitted with that oh-so-Agg balance of vintage and modern details—was funded without investors. “I hate money and I hate having it,” kids Agg. “So I thought I’d get rid of all of it with this project.”

General Public sits on Geary Avenue in an industrial warehouse that butts up against a window manufacturer and an automotive garage. But, when the door opens, it’s as if a stage curtain has been parted to reveal a very different world. “It’s part Narnia, part fancy British pub and part ’80s cocaine dream,” says Agg.

Jen Agg sits in the window of General Public, her new restaurant in Toronto

The menu here is something of a mash-up too. Fried pig’s head, baked oyster rarebit, kampachi crudo and something called “shrimp trifle” don’t sound like they should share space on the same page, but they do here—and it works. “Our idea is to take the concept of a high-end English pub, give it the heartbeat of an American brasserie and fuel it with the blood of a steakhouse,” says Agg. There is very much a method to her madness. “Like all of my spots, General Public began with an amorphous idea, and I built on it with my partners based on what felt right and what didn’t.” The overarching theme here is soul, and if that’s hard to imagine, just try the breadbasket.

The chefs and owners of General Public — Front row from left: Karim Henry (sous chef), Meaghan Da Silva (CDC), David Greig (beverage director, partner), Alex Roshan (GM), Dash Konkin (executive sous-chef), Jake Skakun (wine director, partner) and Jen Agg. Back row: James Santon (executive chef, partner), Gabi Araujo (pastry chef) and Neil Rampersaud (AGM)

The Food

The backbone of the menu is British pub fare. “But there’s a river of a steakhouse running through our food, as well as gentle nods to the Black Hoof,” says Santon. It includes heavy hitters like a New York strip steak or a rack of lamb, but also fried pig’s head, a very Hoof-y creation called Tongue and Tail Pie and a full raw bar.

There are also whispers of Agg’s other restaurants on the menu: the tuna carpaccio—a mélange of raw bluefin tuna, malt vinegar aïoli, pickled onions and cheddar crisp—echoes Le Swan’s expert tuna melt. And it’s not all meat: the Lion’s Mane Schnitzel is a heavenly plateful of breaded mushrooms that accommodates vegetarians (or anyone who likes mushrooms) quite nicely. Given that the restaurant opens at 11 a.m., lunchtime brings Dippy Eggs and a very good breakfast sandwich with a hash brown.

Dippy eggs and buttered toast — Exclusive to the lunch menu, the Dippy Eggs are simple soft-boiled eggs served with toasted Robinson sourdough slathered with Marmite honey butter. $16

A bread basket — The glorious breadbasket is loaded with buttery pull-apart rolls, aged cheddar and Red Leicester cheese straws, an herb biscuit, and a red fife cracker. $8 and $16

A cheeseburger — The cheeseburger, a mixture of brisket and chuck with some bone marrow woven in, is served on a house-made McDonald’s-style bun that’s been slathered with Branston pickle. It’s covered in a Red Leicester sauce meant to resemble (but decidedly better than) processed cheese, plus thinly sliced white onion. Twenty-one burgers are served every day from 4 to 6 p.m. (or until they run out). $21

Bluefin tuna carpaccio — From the raw bar, bluefin tuna from Geary Avenue’s Newport Fish Importers is pounded thin, seasoned with Maldon salt and drizzled with malt vinegar aïoli. It’s finished with lovage, pickled onions and Red Leicester cheddar tuille. $26

The Nordic shrimp trifle is layered like the throwback dessert, but instead of custard, cake and jam, there’s punchy cocktail sauce, something like a mash-up of Green Goddess dressing and avocado mousse, and bite-size Quebec Nordic shrimp. Endive and soda crackers arrive on the side for more of that vintage feel (and of course, dipping). $26

A plate of slice coppa topped with grated aged cheddar — An ode to the Hoof and the love of ham, this plate is piled with house-made coppa that’s been drizzled with fenugreek-infused honey. It’s finished with a generous portion of grated aged cheddar. $18

Baked oyster rarebit — For the baked oyster rarebit, juicy Malpeque oysters are broiled in a traditional rarebit sauce of 10-year-aged cheddar, Guinness, and mustard and cayenne powders. Sided with a bottle of Worcestershire for that umami. $26

Roasted Chantecler chicken — The roast chicken is of the Chantecler variety, a fancy heritage breed out of Quebec that’s richer and juicier than a standard bird. Because it’s so small, the chicken is treated like a steak—salted, pan-seared and butter basted. It’s served over a baby leek vinaigrette done in the style of Chinese ginger scallion sauce. $45

Canadian prime NY strip steak finished with a salsa verde of green onion, parsley, olive oil and wilted sorrel — The Canadian Prime NY strip from Guelph is aged in-house, simply seasoned with salt, cast-iron grilled, and butter-basted with garlic and thyme. It’s finished with a salsa verde of green onion, parsley, olive oil and wilted sorrel. $65

Three small spoonfuls of caviar on a silver platter — The cheekily named Bubbles and a Bump comes with two grams of sturgeon caviar from Parisian company Kaviari and a shot of champagne. $15 per spoonful and shot

Shot glasses of Champagne — A close-up of the Henriot champagne that accompanies the caviar bump

A can of butterscotch pudding and Biscoff cookies — The butterscotch pudding is made with butterscotch-flavoured pastry cream and canned in house. It’s served with Biscoff cookies for dunking. $14

A person uses a spoon to eat lemon posset served in a teacup — The lemon posset is a classic English dessert: a custard of cream, lemon juice, sugar and salt. It’s covered with a thyme-lemon shortbread cookie that’s meant to be cracked open with a spoon to get to the pudding. $14

The Drinks

Skakun’s 150-bottle wine list has a post-natural point of view that’s not necessarily focused on organic bottles but rather relies on relationships with small producers and growers. “We’re looking at classic regions and grapes that come out of cared-for farms using processes that may sometimes be natural but don’t have the funk associated with many natural wines,” he says.

A glowing backbar at General Public, Jen Agg's new restaurant

Gin plays a starring role in cocktails like the ice-cold Shotgun Martini and the Eton Fizz, a blend of gin, tonka bean, Eton cordial, cream, lemon and egg white. But the British bent doesn’t stop there. “Our take on the margarita is infused with a bunch of Thai flavours, like lemongrass and Thai basil, because there was a huge influence of Thai cuisine in London pubs that started in West London in the ’70s,” says UK expat and beverage director David Greig. “Now there are hundreds of places all over the city that serve Thai pub food.”

A highball cocktail with a twist of lemon — The Suzuki is the bar’s take on a scotch and soda. It’s a blend of scotch, lychee liqueur, coconut water and cold-brewed milk oolong tea. It’s batched in a keg, carbonated and served on tap with a twist of lemon. $18

A mini martini, served in a shot glass and garnished with an olive — The Shotgun Martini is a mini version meant to get the palate going while deciding what else to drink. It’s a pre-batched and pre-diluted blend of gin, dry vermouth, Fino sherry and Macvin, a fortified brandy. It’s bottled and served freezer-cold to mitigate the alcohol burn. $10

Two martinis, each garnished with an olive — On the right: the Double-Barrel—for when the Shotgun Martini just makes you want more martini. $18

A cognac-based cocktail in a coupe — Night School is a cognac-based cocktail that Greig created as an ode to his father, who loved drinking cognac after a day of studying while in university. The drink is composed of a house-made spiced coffee liqueur, fenugreek-infused cognac, sweet vermouth and chocolate bitters. It’s stirred and strained into a frozen white chocolate–painted martini glass. $22

The Space

Downstairs, custom millwork and cozy booths create a warm pub atmosphere modernized by geometric angles and white oak. The bar itself, a glistening L-shaped quartzite 16-seater, is lit by someone’s gran’s milk-glass table lamps and backed by a glowing spirits display that echoes the clerestory windows in Abbey Church. Upstairs, however, the palette pops with pastel pink and ’80s-eyeliner green. Hanging ferns, velvet banquettes, mirrored ceilings, brassy details and a fun flamingo mural by Danielle Worrall move the party from the pub to Palm Springs.