Toast & Butter Cafe Offers Comforting Cuisine That's Good For The Soul

PALOS HILLS, IL — Everyone is raving about Toast & Butter Café since it opened last month in Palos Hills. The breakfast and lunch restaurant is offering free coffee and chicken soup all day Saturday, Jan. 10, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., in celebration of its opening in the community.

Toast & Butter offers a wide and varied selection of breakfast dishes, such as its signature French toast, strawberry-banana pancakes, and skillets as well as burgers, paninis, wraps and protein plates – all with a creative twist by café owner and chef, Jose Figueroa.

“I love to cook, and I love to mix a lot of stuff to come up with new menu items,” Figueroa said. “Everything is fresh and made from scratch. I try to do something than the other places.”

Figueroa always dreamed of opening his own restaurant. His dream came true on Dec. 10 when Toast & Butter Café had its soft opening at 10298 S. 78th Ave., Palos Hills.

“For many years, I worked in a lot of breakfast-lunch restaurants,” Figueroa said. “I wanted to have my own business.”

Why toast?

“Everyone likes toast and butter,” Figueroa said. “A lot of people like avocado with toast. I wanted to put toast and butter together. I like the name.”

He uses sourdough panini toast, sesame seeds and poached egg, smashed avocado, and choice of potato or fruit. In addition to avocado toast, the café offers fresh basil toast, salmon toast, original toast (shredded radish, fresh mozzarella, balsamic glaze) and filet toast.

On the pancake side, there’s lemon orange cheesecake and blueberries, black and white chocolate banana and your fluffy classic pancakes.

The most frequently ordered items include classic skillets, E&A Original Panini, angus beef short ribs and breakfast sliders. Prices range from $7.50 to $19.

Figueroa gets his coffee from a new company in Guatemala, which he insists is better than Columbian coffee.

In deference to his Muslim customers’ dietary restrictions that exclude pork, Figueroa utilizes two grills, one for pork and the other for everything else.

“I hear a lot of people don’t eat pork, so I put in two grills,” he said. “I think about my customers.”

The café will celebrate its grand opening Saturday with free coffee and homemade chicken soup. And if you want to take a picture with Figueroa, that’s fine with him.

“People like it,” he said. “I like to hear nice things about my business.”

Toast & Butter Café, 10298 S. 78th Ave., Palos Hills, is open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Door Dash, Uber Eats and GrubHub are available for deliveries. Follow them on Facebook. Reach them at 708- 274-9159.