A lucky arrangement
Behind the Boîte with the frontmen of The Commodore
By MARTA S
15-second, deliciously snackable intro video shot and edited by Carrie Hayden.
Picture this: You’re a worker in the service industry. You’ve worked your way up the chain at someone’s restaurant. You’re at the point in your skill level and experience where you’re seriously considering breaking off and running your own place.
You want to undertake one of the most costly, risky, and trying endeavours that exist in business. One that calls for you to borrow money from friends and family, break your back doing renovations you may have never done before on some old space (once you can finally secure one), and do it all within the confines of an impossibly tight budget.
Now picture this: One day, two wealthy entrepreneurs approach you. They’re childhood friends who’ve always dreamt of opening their own bar together, and now — after becoming wildly successful through their work in real estate — they’re going to do it.
They offer you an in into their partnership. And money is no object.
Just like that, you’re in charge of a gorgeous, original little space, custom-built from the ground up by a team of professional contractors. You get to dictate the concept and the design, but you don’t have to be part of the renovation process — maybe you help paint a little. And when everything’s ready to go, you remain completely in charge of the menu, the bar offerings, and the staff. Because it is, truly, your place, too.
Sounds like a goddamn dream, doesn’t it? But by and large, this is how executive chef Jon Vettraino and general manager Jason Romanoff of the Commodore — a stunning, fresh little boîte in Parkdale — got their gigs.
It’s not uncommon for restaurant investors to seek out top-tier talent to partner with to run the kitchen and FOH for them. In fact, if you’re a guy with money and no restaurant experience, and you’re gunnin’ to open the bar of your dreams, this is by far the smartest route to take.
And while the acquisition and renovation of the Commodore was handled by two silent, independently wealthy investors, the place would be nothing without Jon and Jason. The concept, the feel, the heart and soul of the Commodore is their brain-child.
Jon and Jason are approachable, funny, and — with years of high quality service industry experience between them — wholly deserving of this opportunity. They haven’t taken their good fortune so far for granted in the least. They are at the Commodore every single day and have been involved in every aspect of its operation from the moment they were asked to join the team. And they made me laugh for the entirety of our interview.
At two months old, the Commodore is the youngest property we’ve ever profiled on BtB. By the end of this story, you — like me — are going to hope that it remains a fixture in Parkdale for years to come.
Meet the team
I like chef Jon Vettraino. He’s outspoken, liberal with the swear words (like me), and a family man with a 16-month old at home. He grew up not too far from the Commodore, around the Bloor-Dufferin area. He’s worked at Splendido (like many talented chefs before him), been the sous at F’Amelia in Cabbagetown, the chef at 416 Snack Bar, and done some staging in Europe.
Throughout the interview, Jon and Jason help flesh out each other’s thoughts, and good-naturedly bust each other’s balls like two guys that have been friends for years do. So I’m surprised to discover that they met through a business deal.
“Our two silent partners actually brought us together,” Jon tells me. “One partner had found me through 416 Snack Bar. He liked what I did there. And the other partner had heard about Jason,” — who was working at Pizzeria Libretto at the time — “and had a really good feeling about him. So Jason and I first met here [at the Commodore], when this place was still a construction site. Actually, it was like…“
“Demolition,” says Jason, ending his sentence for him.
I met Jason Romanoff when I breezed into the Commodore one evening, needing a drink after work. He’s soft-spoken and he laughs at my jokes. So he’s good in my books.
Jason lived in Mexico until the age of four. “Then [my family] moved here to the countryside — most of my young adulthood was spent in Caledon East. I moved to Toronto when I was 19 for school, and started in the industry as a busser and worked my way up. And here I am.”
The pair clicked instantly. “We got to talking,” Jon recalls, “and Jason had worked at Nota Bene and I had worked at Splendido. Those are places that are run very similarly. So I was like, ‘Okay, I can relate. We probably have very similar standards.’”
“We definitely have similar ideas when it comes to hospitality,” Jason agrees. “We share a kind of old-school mentality — we’re very genuine with our service. We just want people to have a good time. And we agreed on the quality of food we wanted to serve.”
“When you work at a place like [Splendido or Nota Bene], everything you do is scrutinized and detail-oriented,” explains Jon. “You can’t make it in a place like that if you don’t play ball. If you’ve lasted there for a significant amount of time, chances are you’re pretty decent [at your job]. The two of us look at all this [running a restaurant] with the same ideals. And our personalities gelled.”
“We got pretty lucky that it worked out, actually,” Jason adds.
Crafting the Commodore
And it worked out well. The two set to creating an identity for their new restaurant together.
“All the silent partners knew they wanted was a bar that could to sell a lot of drinks and have good food to go with them. Beyond that, there was no set concept,” says Jon. “Before they approached me, I had already been working on a concept [of my own]. I already had a menu style in mind. So the menu we do here now is very similar to what I had in the works.”
“We took the best of all the different worlds we’ve worked in,” explains Jason. “Fine dining, casual, bar atmospheres — we tried to meld them together. We do maintain those standards [we learned] from Splendido and Nota Bene, but we don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Your fork doesn’t always have to be on the right-hand side. You’re allowed to use your fingers [to eat]. It’s simple, casual — order a bunch of great food, share it, have a few drinks, and be merry. That’s it.”
An incredible build
As a resident of Parkdale, I can assure you — the space that houses the Commodore now looks nothing like it used to when it was a small vegetarian sushi resto. Jason sought out designer Marx Kruis to help bring the vision he and Jon had for the space to life.
As one of their silent partners works in renovation, “he already had the team available to build everything,” Jon tells me. “But he’d never built a restaurant, so he needed somebody like Marx. The two of us gave him some ideas of what we were thinking, some inspiration.”
With Marx Kruis executing their design ideas — which included vaulted ceilings inspired by the oyster bar in Grand Central Station — and with a professional team of contractors in charge of completely making over the space, I’m interested to know if Jon and Jason got their hands dirty in the build at all.
“We painted a little… But, no,” Jon admits with a laugh. “This shit is ridiculous. The build was impressive. There’s nothing more emasculating than seeing guys who can build all this, and then you’re there, like, ‘Uh, can you hang a clock for me?’”
“‘It’d be really cool if you guys could put this mirror up for me,’” adds Jason, laughing along.
“Every day, we’d be like, ‘We need something hung. This light isn’t working.’ Neither of us is handy in that way,” Jon says, shaking his head.
With that, Jason turns to Jon, and says seriously, “Speaking of which, one of our bulbs is burned out. We should probably get someone to come in and take a look at that.” They both grin.
I’m giggling all over again.
The bad & the best
Lack of handyman skills aside, I want to know what the pair feels their biggest mistake was during the opening process.
“We’re perfect. We do everything right,” Jason answers with a straight face.
Jon echoes his sentiment. “So far we’re killing it on every level.”
Obviously, they’re kidding. Besides the usual hardships — the surprise costs, having to replace pricey equipment, etc. — their unique business arrangement proved to be a bit of a challenge.
“I think we were our own worst enemies,” Jon says. “Four people trying to make decisions [together], and everyone was new. The four of us didn’t really know each other. So nobody was taking a strong stance on anything. Getting a consensus of four was sometimes impossible.”
On the flip side, I ask the guys what they think the best part of running their own place is.
“Fame and power,” Jason jokes quietly, without missing a beat.
In all seriousness, Jason tells me the best part of this whole endeavour for him is that it landed him in Parkdale. “I love running this business here. It’s another thing that really shows our luck with this whole process. Everyone’s been really welcoming. Most of our regulars are locals, and they seem to love everything we’re doing, which is a great feeling.”
For Jon, it’s about how adventurous many diners in Toronto have become.
“My favourite dish [we serve] is called Sweet Cheeks, which I named as such to soften the blow that it’s pork cheeks wrapped around pork tongue. That’s kind of an ‘out there’ dish for a lot of people, but it’s one of our best sellers. People come in here and they’re not afraid [to try new things]. Toronto’s a really food-savvy city — if you open the right place, the right people will come.”
Chef Vettraino doesn’t like the beach
So what would these two be doing if they could be doing anything else in the world?
“I would not be in the restaurant business,” Jon tells me definitively. “Simply because there are far easier things to do with your life. I think I’d be a real estate tycoon. With a top hat. And monocle. I’d be the Monopoly Man, essentially.”
Hilarious.
“I’d probably just live out of a backpack,” Jason says thoughtfully.
Jon side-eyes him. “That’s not a job, sir. That’s a bum.” We all dissolve into laughter again.
“Hey, man, you got your dream, I got mine!” Jason says in mock defense. “I’d have a little shack that sells, like, five styles of t-shirt, and has a hammock in the back. And it’d be on a beach. And I’d sell two types of beer. Just something simple like that, with no worries. Completely different from what this industry is.”
It’s here that I glimpse a crack within this seemingly idyllic relationship.
“You know what? I don’t like the beach,” Jon states defiantly, crossing his arms. Jason’s jaw drops.
“What?”
“Listen, I went travelling once, and was guided to all these beaches,” Jon explains. “At first I was like, ‘Beach! Yeah!’ But it’s hot. And you get wet. And the sand sticks to you. It’s unpleasant. There’s salt in the water. It’s gross.”
Jason is totally incredulous. “The beach is the best thing ever!” he insists. He turns to me and says with mock seriousness, “I think this relationship is ending right now. “
“What have I done?!” I exclaim.
“Our biggest mistake was agreeing to this interview!”
Don’t worry — Jon and Jason were able to see past their differing opinions about the beach. I, however, am no longer welcome at the Commodore due to inciting such a disagreement.
… Just kidding. I mean, I live around the corner. As long as the Commodore is in Parkdale, I’ll be stopping in. You should, too.
The Commodore is open Wednesday — Sunday, from 5pm to 2am, with the kitchen cranking out delicious, shareable plates of seafood and more until midnight.
Keep your eyes peeled for their brand new brunch offerings on weekend mornings, slated to start real, real soon.
Marta S is a freelance writer and bartender living and working in Toronto. If you or someone you know would like to be profiled by Behind the Boîte, email her at marta@behindtheboite.com.
She takes all kinds.
