Branding aside, City Betty is a spot to watch
Address: 1352 Danforth Ave. (near Greenwood Ave.), 647-271-3949, citybetty.com Chef: Alex Molitz Hours: Breakfast, Wednesday to Friday, 9 to 11 a.m. Lunch, Wednesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner, Wednesday to Sunday from 5 p.m. Brunch, Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Reservations: Yes Wheelchair access: Step to washroom
Price: Dinner for two with cocktails, tax and tip: $120 City Betty is a good restaurant with an awkward name. Owner Amanda Gatien chose it after her former home in New York City and her 87-year-old maternal grandmother.
“It was personal. I wasn’t looking at what other people like,” says Gatien, 42.
Gatien opened City Betty on April 13 in what used to be The Borough gastropub.
The graphic designer and daughter of nightlife king Peter Gatien (Manhattan’s The Limelight, Toronto’s Circa) has never run a restaurant but knows how to create a sunny, boho, welcoming vibe.
Nightclub designer Kenny Baird installed acid green banquettes, antiqued mirrors and potted succulents; his decoupaged washrooms are a trip.
Zodiac-themed cocktails by consultant Sarah Evans demonstrate a certain quirk, especially since Sagittarius is missing. (It’s coming.) But the wine list doesn’t fit the restaurant’s stated bicoastal brief.
For a chef, Gatien turned to Alex Molitz, whom she met through Evans.
Molitz, 37, did good work as the opening chef of the Farmhouse Tavern and closing chef of Geraldine. He recently returned to Toronto after cooking in the Caribbean for two years.
His cooking here is light and seasonal, hitting the sweet spot between the old and new worlds with classical sauces and vegan options.
The impeccable fish is from Fogo Island, Newfoundland. At one brunch, a beautiful piece of cod ($18) comes with lemony white bean purée and crisp green beans.
With a fluffy apple-carrot muffin ($5), it’s the best part of any morning.
Cartilaginous cod tongues go into the fritto misto ($17) along with buttermilk-marinated oysters and artichoke hearts.
Fried lemons take it up a notch, as does the silky cauliflower purée underneath.
The kitchen works to repurpose food scraps on the daily changing menu. That might mean making a brandade ($14) from cod trimmings puréed with king crab meat, heavy cream and potatoes into a Basquian delight on toast.
Molitz makes the polenta of my dreams, mixed with enough rich crescenza cheese to merit a Monty Python sketch.
It acts as a soft cornmeal barrier around a note-perfect, mushroom-stuffed chicken roulade ($23), confited cherry tomatoes and classic brown sauce; break through the polenta and the sauce floods the vintage plate.
Molitz makes the most of his ingredients. He matches smoky tender duck breast ($16) with candied kumquats. A drop of orange blossom water perfumes the almond milk served with gooey warm chocolate chip cookies ($8).
His dessert of sliced citrus and vanilla custard ($10) is a brilliant balance of tart, sweet, fatty, creamy and bright.
Even the burger ($17) is deliciously restrained. This is not the towering behemoth Molitz popularized at the Farmhouse Tavern, with its fried duck egg, goat cheese and bacon.
(“It was too much,” Molitz says.)
Now he makes a pleasantly chewy five-ounce patty on a potato bun, topped with celeriac remoulade, cherry chutney and iceberg lettuce.
I respect what City Betty and its staff are doing to further their stated goals of female empowerment, queer positivity and food security. But the name. So forgettable. Branding matters. Eater.com found the James Beard Awards committee is more likely to nominate an American restaurant with a girl’s name. Therefore, Betty’s.
Then again, to paraphrase Shakespeare, a restaurant by any other name would taste as good to eat.