Instead of hopping on a plane, Torontonians can visit a new restaurant in town that takes patrons on a quick trip to the Hamptons for a night out.
“The concept behind it is like I’m in a house in the Hamptons,” co-owner Rachel Chartrand said as she sat across from partner Mike Young.
The kitchen at The Hamptons, which opened earlier this month, can’t get bogged down in a traditional sense.
Instead, Chartrand and Young, who also own Bar Montauk, strive to create an experience.
Your physical space plays a central role in facilitating that goal. The Clinton and College Street establishment is housed in an old house, formerly Pinky’s Ca Phe, just north of Café Diplomatico.
At the entrance, the restaurant resembles a bed and breakfast with white-paneled windows and a sitting room where patrons can sip oysters and sip wine on teak furniture. Upon arrival, everyone is greeted with a splash of prosecco. That vibe extends into a large back garden enclosed by white picket fences with lush green leaves hanging over them.
“It’s in the house and we wanted it to feel like it’s always changing and moving, and the furniture to feel like you’re in a house and having a big dinner,” Chartrand said.
Each morning the owners hand select their ingredients at Kensington Market. If something is not in stock, they edit their menu.
“We are working with [the supply chain]Young said. “If it’s not on the menu, it means it wasn’t fresh.”
“We are just what the new norm is,” added his partner.
Its current offerings, or what Chartrand calls season one, episode one of its evolving menu, highlights raw food.
The anchor of their appetizers is their butter three ways: a creamy prairie butter drizzled with honey, a Norwegian salt cod butter, and a ‘nduja butter that takes on a burnt orange hue. The three tablespoons of butter are served with a seedless blackbird bread.
For entrees, there’s a venison loin tartare with a dijon component that’s sprinkled with capers and comes with a buttered lettuce rind. There’s also shrimp and a bay scallop raw.
As the weather changes, the menu will too. That raw theme will evolve into dishes that accompany cooler temperatures, giving way to a pizza oven where they plan to cook whole fish and oysters.
“It goes back to the organic kind of Nordic Scandinavian approach to our ethos here and just staying true to the ingredients without altering them,” Chartrand said.
Back in February, when the couple took over their space, they knew it was a crazy time to jump into a new business, specifically in the restaurant industry. But when they walked down Clinton Street and saw that the property was available for rent, they fell in love with it.
“It just came to us more than us looking for it,” Young said.
Over time, they want to expand the restaurant and take over the upper floors of the house to create a variety of experiences along with a party in the Hamptons on Friday nights.
“The ultimate goal is that in a few years we will take over that space, build it and make a complete home experience. It’s like a social house without being a social host,” Chartrand said.