What happens when a national oyster shucking champion and the sous-chef from a Michelin-star restaurant team up to open a brand-new seafood and oyster restaurant? Summerhill diners can find out this August when Seahorse opens its doors on Yonge Street.
Eamon Clark — son to Toronto oyster king Rodney Clark of Rodney’s Oyster House fame — recently took home the title of the Canadian Oyster Shucking Champion for the eleventh time in his career, but oysters aren’t the only think he’s shucking this summer. Clark, who has also worked at The Food Dudes and The Good Oyster, has teamed up with restauranteurs Richard Renaud (Piano Piano, Speducci, Marcato), and Simon Bower (Lucien, Mercer Street Grill, YYZ), to bring the seafood and oyster restaurant to the masses.
“We’ve had our eyes on the spot for over two years and we thought it would be great to make a really warm, inviting, hospitable place that features great seafood, amazing service oysters,” says Bower. “We saw it as a really good place for the community and for those around us.”
Bower, himself, has designed the 38-seat restaurant which the team completely renovated to bring an all-new concept to the neighbourhood. Boasting a vibrant red entrance, Seahorse takes inspiration from rural 1960s and 70s France, elevated with laid-back, modern touches including exposed brick and archways decorated in fairylights.
The menu is being curated by executive chef Federico Garcia, who has no shortage of seafood expertise from years spent in the Michelin-starred kitchen of Quetzal where he worked as the sous-chef.
At Seahorse, his menu promises to be just as elevated, boasting a raw seafood menu with both a fish of the day and a pasta of the day, alongside salads and vegetarian-friendly cuisine. Seahorse is also promising an ice box featuring a variety of mussels, clams, oysters, and scallops.
Those eats can be paired with Renaud’s expansive list of craft cocktails, as well as wines and old-world champagnes that are largely sourced from France.
Seahorse will be opening soon at 1226 Yonge Street from Tuesdays to Saturdays beginning at 5 p.m. before eventually being open six nights per week in the future.
