The Gemini is a secret seafood bar hidden above Dundas West
Access via an unmarked stairway above Caldense Bakery. Fish-forward shared plates, natural wines, and a gnome's-after-hours-club vibe.
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The Gemini, a new Basque-ish seafood spot on Dundas West, feels like an instant institution—the kind of place that combines New York cool, old-world tavern warmth, and the charm of a kooky friend's house.
Three hospitality veterans—Jenny Ware, Mike Couvillon, and Craig Spence (with stints at Bernhardt's, Dreyfus, Jamil's, and Midfield Wine Bar)—got the keys to this clandestine 35-seat room in October. It's accessed by an unmarked stairway above Caldense Bakery, making it the sort of place that feels like a discovery even after you've been.
The menu is a selection of fresh and whimsical fish-forward shared plates. Ware created a dream list around visual presentation first, taking creative inspiration from restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Head chef Ken Envidia then brought those ideas to life. "I try to do well by the team's idea and then add to it," Envidia says. "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. Couvillon created an unfussy list 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," Spence says. "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."
The dining room is clad in warm wood, church pews, and vintage light fixtures. Even the bathroom is quirky. "The mood board for it was a gnome's after-hours club in the basement of a lighthouse," Ware says. Guests with a discerning eye will spot funky blown-glass clown decanters and oddball tchotchkes tucked into corners. 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.
