The new meal: The Roosevelt Room, which remains under construction, intends to put the focus on food (Photo by Karon Liu)
Another supper club is opening in the Entertainment District, but before the eye rolling commences, note that The Roosevelt Room is attempting to distance itself from its cookie-cutter urban-chic counterparts. The menu is to be prepared by a high-profile executive chef, and the interior is done in a deco motif intended to channel golden-era Hollywood (rather than the slick, soulless look into the future we’ve come to expect from supper clubs).
We met visonary and Bay Street whiz Jeff O’Brien yesterday as he was configuring the lines on the patterned ceiling above the bar and giving thumbs down to wallpaper deemed too shiny. “I’ve thought for the longest time that Toronto hasn’t really nailed the supper club concept,” he says. “There have been a lot of attempts, but they haven’t really fired all cylinders on the food, service and entertainment components.”
O’Brien isn’t taking any chances with the Roosevelt Room’s cylinders. For food, he’s turned to Trevor Wilkinson of Trevor Kitchen and Bar. Much like the French menu at the first Academy Awards dinner that took place at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood in 1929, Wilkinson—who was also the executive chef at Jump and Lobby—will be cooking up such bistro staples as coq au vin and duck confit. One of the signature dishes will be the Roosevelt burger, consisting of a red wine–braised short rib wrapped in ground sirloin, with blue cheese, tarragon dressing, arugula and a tiny skewer of fried pickles.
The 550-capacity club’s decor comes from the Design Agency (the firm headed by the hosts of HGTV’s Designer Guys), with a heavy emphasis on wood. Bold lines and sweeping curves are in the walls and etched into the woodwork. Downstairs, we find a long hallway lined with giant Tamara de Lempicka prints that cabaret dancers will pass as they secure their headpieces for the weekly shows in the main dining room.
Since this is the Entertainment District, modern elements are also included. A giant projection screen (on which silent movies will be shown) and an LED lighting system will serve the room well during obligatory DJ nights and celebrity events. The 20 unisex bathroom stalls in the basement are another interesting feature.
Sadly, the cinema-themed supper club that just screams TIFF won’t open in time for this year’s festival due to the six-week delay of the city strike, though there will be soft openings next month that lead up to the official opening in mid-October.
The Roosevelt Room, 328 Adelaide St. W. (at Drummond Pl.), 416-599-9000, therooseveltroom.ca.
Jeff O’Brien, go meet Brad Long. You two will need each other’s shoulders to cry on in the near future.
And before someone says Shocker, why so negative about these two projects? Well, no, it’s not that I’m trying to be negative, just call me a realist. The concept is good, it just looks like the execution is way above everyone’s head. This is not New York and this is not Chicago. The people of Toronto don’t even support 20-seat restaurants, what makes you think that 500 of them an evening will support this?
When will restaurateurs in this city realize that our volume of people willing to go out and dine is no where near the volume of the USA. So, when these guys go around the USA and try to bring their concepts here, it usually doesn’t fly.
Now, you really don’t need that much brain power to realize that a 550-seat ANYTHING in Toronto, no less the Entertainment District is a disaster waiting to happen. Shiny wallpaper will be the least of his worries. Where in Toronto have you seen even 200 people dining at the same time for dinner? This is not Milestones or Boston Pizza.
But alas, they say this Jeff is a Bay St. whiz. Which often means that he’s swizzled lots o money from clients over the years so he should have a good amount of play money at hand.
Good luck.
September 1, 2009 at 12:31 pm | by ShockerThe Roosevelt Room is a supper club with 2 separate capacities to consider; a seated capacity of 120 (including private rooms) for dining, and a nightclub capacity anticipated to be approximately 550.
September 1, 2009 at 2:37 pm | by The Roosevelt RoomThank you, Roosevelt Room! This changes EVERYTHING! I am so glad you cleared that up.
Um, back to reality.
Ok, your supper club will seat 120. I’m gonna tell you this again so it doesn’t shock you when the bank calls or your investors call: you will NEVER fill it! Never. This is the sad reality of our city. You might get some people in for first-time viewing, and then that’s it. Private rooms you will do better with since planners are always looking for newer, nicer looking venues.
Uh, your nightclub? Unless you have hooches in the back for some secret rendevouz, you must be ingesting some great kush if you think you’ll even get CLOSE to that 550 number. I mean, brother, what planet are you living on? Do you not LIVE in Toronto? Or do you really have that large an ego to think that you will open everyone’s eyes? Come on, do yourself and your pocketbook a favour and scale this puppy down drastically. You should heed my free advice. You will thank me for it.
September 1, 2009 at 4:46 pm | by Shockerwho is this guru giving advice about toronto night life? only by revealing yourself can you give yourself any credibility…you probably don’t even work in the industry…my guess is you probably don’t even have a job if you’ve got this much time to compose a disertation like the above two postings. i for one am excited about the prospect of a new spot on adelaide west. good luck Roosevelt Room…
September 1, 2009 at 11:22 pm | by mikeWell Mike, it’s too bad you can’t read properly. Good thing it’s back to school time!
Let’s take this sloooooowly again for you: What I actually said was no restaurant in Toronto has EVER filled 550 seats for dinner, or will they ever. Well, maybe in 100 years when our population is over-capacity. But unfortunately in 50 years, the Roosevelt Supper Club will only be a blip in Toronto’s history. Anyway, I digress. The Roosevelt Room kindly further explained that their concept was 120 for dinner. To which I replied, I STILL don’t think 120 people will go to a supper club in the entertainment district.
Now, if this Jeff is such a whiz, he’d understand his demographic, psychographics of the area, (this all means understand your market). And what he SHOULD have done, because I do really like this concept, is put it in an area where this might actually fly. Personally, I think this would have better (and cheaper for Jeff) somewhere like Maple, Vaughan, or Woodbridge. The people there understand supper clubs better.
Because here’s what’s going to happen, he’s going to hire someone who’s going to tell him they are a restaurant and events whiz. And they may be. But they will be fighting against a tide of low to no tourism in the city (thanks, David Miller. Thanks Tourism Toronto, way to spend those ad dollars), a shaky economy, and, quite frankly, a backlash against ‘fine dining’/$$$$ restaurants. The boys at Splendido get the picture. Ask Jamie Kennedy how hard it is to fill his small-ish (but great) restaurants? So, Jeff will have this staff of people telling him what he wants to hear, and they’ll be working hard trying to fill this place, Tourism Toronto and others will try to throw some events to him in the beginning but they’ll do it once, and then it’ll be old for them and have you seen the Convention List lately, mike? There’s more white on there than black – meaning more white space on the paper than black ink in conventions coming here. Anyway, he’ll spend $$$ on ads, it’ll look sleek. The Bay St. boys will come visit once, twice, three times, and then it’ll get old. It’ll get expensive, and it’ll get empty.
BTW, I think the people that understand, know what I’m saying is true. I don’t need to give the big reveal.
And in terms of how much time I have to type? I’m a fast typer, so these little dittys take me on avg. about 5 minutes to post off. I consider 5 minutes well worth my time to help Jeff et al out. Wouldn’t you agree? Oh, I also have a very flexible boss :)
I’m glad you’re so excited, mike. You should yell from the rooftops and try to help Jeff out! I’m hoping that all your well wishes and good lucks actually translate in many, many, many visits to The Roosevelt Room and that you’re not just talking hot air here. Because Jeff needs bums in seats here, not just “well-wishers”.
September 3, 2009 at 10:12 am | by ShockerDear Shocker. What a relief to have someone articulate so well how odd and boring this city is when it comes to Toronto restaurants and nightlife. I have to agree with you Shocker…on all fronts. I am a Bay st exec who entertains tons of clients on a nightly basis and I’m always stuck on where to take them that is new, fun original and actually still in business. Bay st restaurants and Yorkville and College st. for that matter, get really boring, and dry after a while. Hmmm..maybe its time to move to NYC or Chicago :)
October 6, 2009 at 3:55 pm | by deedeewow, this “shocker” idiot is a real loser. i’m guessing he has unrealized lofty ambitions to become a restauranteur or just plain jealous. look at how long his posts are…FREAK – get a life. who the hell uses words like “puppy” to replace nouns. gee, ii think the bay stret exec who is opening this new place probably is successful for a reason, leave him alone, they don’t need your inane “advice”. and it makes sense to have a dining and event venue in a convenient part of town, 2 revenue streams. i don’t think they’ll have trouble with seating or booking in this niche market that they are serving. i hangout in upscale bar/restaurants when i visit the city and its always packed. i don’t think the restaurant/dining business is going to fade much in toronto- the goods ones are still there,its the poorly financed “living my dream of running a bar/restaurant” that go under in “neighbourhoods”.
October 7, 2009 at 1:13 am | by Lynnby the way yo idiot, you just proved how stupid you are “Shocker” by actually thinking in the first place that they made a restaurant that expected to pack 550 people in for dinner per night plus….suggesting they move it to Vaughn, Maple or some other lame suburb, those peopledon’t eat out unless its a wedding birthday or anniversary…they’re busy taking the kids to soccer or mowing their lawns….god you’re so stupid!!!! and “psychographic” oh please you can’t even pull off pretentious in an intelligent way.
October 7, 2009 at 1:21 am | by LynnLet’s try a realist perspective. The Roosevelt Room will end up a big joke. “Shocker” is right on the money for the most part. TO just doesn’t have the market. The latest TO resto success stories are gourmet burger joints – LOL. It doesn’t matter if your space is designed by The Designer Guys or (vastly superior) Yabu Pushelberg or II by IV. The failure of TDG’s 111 Yorkville, smaller and better located, is proof.
The pathetic “selling points” touted in this article speak for themselves. Trevor Who? EC at at Lobby (just sold to owner of shot-up Brunswick House) and Jump? Their success was never due to food – rather, location.
Bay Street “visionary” Jeff O’Brien? CEO and President of (defunct?) ONE Financial. The website’s latest update is from June 2008. They list Société Générale as a partner – who suffered a $7 billion loss from ONE trader in 2008. LMFAO.
So the financial backer (O’Brien) is a clown. The Executive Chef (Wilkinson) is a joke.
The most important factor relative to success – LOCATION – is an obvious failure waiting to happen. EAST of Spadina, off ADELAIDE??? All the new hotspots are far WEST of Spadina — ie. Ossington (Foxley/Pizzeria Libretto/Levack Block), West Queen West (Drake/Gladstone), Liberty Village. And Adelaide, once Richmond’s equal is a dismal, dead street.
I took the time to write this because I enjoy the coverage of nightlife on Toronto Life, BlogTO, Torontoist and Martini Boys. I work in finance and have been going out and taking people out for about 10 years in TO. Trust me, #2 Drummond St. is long way from *St. Laurent* in Montreal – where you will find the nearest real supper clubs. :) Cheers,
October 24, 2009 at 4:17 am | by The Sad TruthSadly, Shocker is right. We USED to weekly, North 44, Fifth,Bymark, Colbourne LAne, the no longer in existance Avalon,Susur, etc, ect, etc and spared no expense on the covert wines that miraculously found their way to our table. Within the past 5 years we have sat in rooms that were once full houses and thinned out considerably.. from classic restuarants to the’cool’ and funky
And sadly again,as x-patriots of Manhatten, this wonderful idea won’t fly here. Bathazar’s have their ‘regulars’ who walk there for lunch and dinner ( and have a few mill for pocket change) but Bathazar’s will always have the rest of the Manhattenites AND tourists to fill the place to capacity for most part of the day and night. ( And Bathazar’s doesn’t even have great food, but the atmosphere is intoxicating !!! )Toronto is simply not populated enough and Canadians are SO VERY VERY conservative in spending their nest egg on dining , save a special holiday once a year.
And to be competitive, you would need an Allegro or Opus wine list that can’t be duplicated in this day and age.
All that said, I wish you well..I truly hope to see you succeed
October 27, 2009 at 10:54 pm | by tbalol. went to the roosevelt over the weekend. awesome space.great crowd. Major buzz all over the city with all the right people, oh. and good prices. 7.50 rail. so much for the armchair critics. as for location? I live 5 mins. away. love the fact that I have somewhere like this so close to my condo.
October 29, 2009 at 10:43 am | by nobodyGreat crowd, huge buzz is a given for all new openings …. This crowd needs to spend big money and stay as regulars and not hop to the next new venue that opens in order for the restaurant to survive..I hope it is successful and will eventually try it…
October 29, 2009 at 8:27 pm | by tbaToronto ( outside of Toronto) doesn’t hit the list of big cities .. WE don’t even have a Zagett’s anymore .. It was out for 1 year and then nothing.
We have GREAT restaurants scattered thoughout Toronto and I have spoken to many chef/owners..People do not want to drop $500. a night on a regular basis to keep the restaurants alive..and the BYOB didn’t help either since the markup on liqour is the more profitable for them
I’m not sure why Shocker feels so strongly about this. If he/she really doesn’t like it, after going a few times, that’s fine. The place isn’t even officially open yet!
I agree with Shocker that maybe the capacity seems a little over-ambitious, but I do think that T.O. needs a break from the cookie-cutter supper clubs. I think that this will be a breath of fresh air; and it is very Manhattan.
In addition, saying that The Roosevelt Room will do well in Vaughan and Woodbridge is like saying The Box in NYC should have been located in Jersey. I’m not sure if putting an urban hotspot in a suburb full of soccer moms is the way to go.
Tba, I’m not sure how you can misspell Manhattan if you’ve lived there, considering its dwellers tend to have a lot of pride.
Trevor Wilkison is a pretty talented chef, and if having worked in Centro, Lobby, and Jump doesn’t mean anything to you, then you obviously doesn’t understand food, nor the importance of food to a club.
Bottom line: No one will know how well this concept will pan out, just don’t knock it til you try it.
November 1, 2009 at 4:00 am | by T.O. LoverOH !! I stand corrected !Not only can I not type , I can’t spell either ! I’ve been away far too long, but then again I’ve been known to spell Toronto incorrectly as well..
and ” then you obviously doesn’t understand food ” makes us both lazy in our proof reading :)
I don’t think the concept is being knocked, the concept is great … it’s the recent history of wonderful retaurants with exeptional food, service , location and atmosphere that brings us to the population #’s and conseravtive spending … It’s looking at the big picture of GTA, not simply a new high end restaurant ..and on top of that EDO brings in ManhattAn’s NOBU chef for a fundraising event ?.
I think all of us wish all openings to be successful and STAY successful… It seems to me most are questioning the size and timing to be the critical ‘make it or break it’…(didn’t prrof-reed )
November 1, 2009 at 9:26 pm | by tbaEnjoy your week !
I’m back.
I went. I saw. It will fail.
But first, let me get some housekeeping out of the way: Lynn dear, go to the Learning Annex and take a couple classes. You can’t spell and you can’t write for shit. You know what they say about glass houses. You fault me for using the word “puppy” and “psychographics” but just look at how and what you wrote. C’mon Lynn, have some pride in a public forum.
Nobody: Your name fits you to a tee.
T.O. Lover: Well, I guess I feel strongly because I too am a T.O. Lover and would love to see my great city flourish and thrive. I get so depressed when I drive around the city these days and see everything shuttered with a FOR LEASE sign in front. And sadly, we will be seeing this with Roosevelt Room too. But really I’m just a passionate realist about everything in life.
As many can see, the majority feels the same way I do about the state of our city’s restaurants and this one too. Roosevelt Room has an identity crisis before it opens its doors. They do not know the business and they do not know what they are doing. I had the chance to go see Roosevelt Room for myself recently. I will say this: it LOOKS beautiful. If I didn’t know what great China knock-offs you can get these days with wood and trimmings I’d say they spent quite the pretty penny. I know these people and I wish them well. But they are not really restaurateurs, they are poseurs. And it will reflect when you go there. Go there and see. Don’t take my word for it. I also tried a sampling of food. It was average at best. And the prices from what I know are way too high.
But I stand by my original comment. Too big, and not for Toronto.
And btw, for all the geniuses that don’t know this: Vaughan, Maple, and parts of Richmond Hill have the most wealth of this province. If you think the profile is just soccer moms then you are all reading the wrong papers. Forget what they say about Oakville. It’s all up north. Oakville may be the wealthiest on paper, but you know how that goes.
November 2, 2009 at 11:50 am | by Shocker