New Restaurant Concept Isn't Toast in Ferndale

Who knew the lowly breakfast side, toast, could stand on its own?

It’s a rhetorical question. Toast bars have been a staple on the West Coast for a couple of years, but now one they’re popping up in the metro, Detroit Free Press restaurant critic Sylvia Rector reports.

Before going, forget what you think you know about “a thin, lame piece of barely-browned white bread served as an obligatory side to a plate of scrambled eggs,” Rector advises. “Ugh.”

Instead, think about artisan breads and handmade jams, nut butters, fruits and cheeses and other indulgences, she said.

The first of the “toast bars” – Avalon International Breads – opened last month in Midtown Detroit, where owners Jackie Victor and Ann Perrault sell a $3.75 slice of toast.

Upscale toasts are also available elsewhere in the metro, including Commonwealth café and coffee shop in Birmingham, where two slices of toasted multigrain bread dressed up with ingredients like guacamole, fresh arugula and hard-boiled eggs make an $8 meal.

Toast restaurant has a location a few blocks away, and also a restaurant in Ferndale. Its slices, available in five different types of bread, go for $2 an order, and include optional toppings like Nutella or apple butter for $1 each. At night, the restaurants trick up the toast menu with bruschetta, topping it with roasted grapes, herbed chevre, toasted walnuts and a wild-mushroom dish that owner Thom Bloom told Rector is “kind of a seasonal chef-inspired dish we do weekly.”

Still jonesing for today’s new and improved toast?

Head over to Fenton and Crust, which began offering toast by the slice in 2012. Its toast toppings include a concoction known as Fluffnutter made of cinnamon-raisin toast, natural peanut butter and melted house-made marshmallows. A slice there goes for $3.95.

» Read the full story on the Detroit Free Press.

_____

Toast Birmingham’s offerings include house-made banana bread, maple orange butter, brulee banana, and maple syrup drizzle. Toast Birmingham Facebook page.