Toast opens to a packed crowd for its first day

It was good to get a chance to welcome Toast Paninoteca to the downtown dining scene on Friday along with -- well, a pretty full house. I'll leave the exacting food description to my Durham foodie blogger compatriots; it never ceases to amaze me the depth and passion of the Bull City's food fashionistas, along with their ability to actually know what more than a quarter of the ingredients are on the menu at your typical gourmet establishment.

I don't mix well in that space -- since figuring out a quarter of the menu is about the best I can do -- so I'll leave you to their descriptions (at Cooking Eating Durham and Celeste's Pique and Reverie) for a fuller discussion.

But I can say that Toast had a packed house on Friday for its grand opening to the public. Scott Harmon and his Center Studio Architecture team were there; so was Alice Sharpe amidst a decent contingent of downtown scenesters. During the noon hour, the crowd was literally lined up to the front door, though the staff handled the first-day rush in good humor and good graces. (I actually had a photo of the madness, but somehow managed to delete it off of the smartphone I'm still learning how to use.)

My wife and I each had panini sandwiches, which were both delicious and very affordable -- under $6 apiece, which beats Rue Cler's lowered lunch prices and certainly comes in below where the Ambacco dining establishments weigh in. Toast provides quasi-table service; order at the counter, wait for the food to be brought to your table. The interior is cheery and makes great use of a narrow storefront.

If you're planning on stopping by, on-street parking is your best option, followed closely by the surface parking to the rear of the building; the restaurant is accessible from doors on both ends of the building.

A few of the techies in the first day crowd enjoyed the free wi-fi brought to you by... yes, by Five Points Cafe, which despite not having opened to the public still managed to bleat out a respectable full-strength Internet signal for a good twenty minutes or so before the restaurant-in-waiting's occupant apparently turned off the router. (Enforcing, perhaps, Five Points Cafe's own no-laptop-at-lunchtime rule?)

Lunch Friday was punctuated by the occasional low beeping tone of a smoke detector, which had inopportunely been located right near an exhaust vent. All things considered, though, Toast was terrific independent of its longevity; for a restaurant in its first couple of hours in operation, it was even better. Here's looking forward to Toast remaining a neighbor in the Bull City for years to come.

I'll check them out for breakfast one day this week and see how they fare.

Comments

[Lenore Ramm]

Thanks for the description of the available parking! That's helpful. :)

[JDC]

I couldn't go inside when I walked by last week (walking the dog) but the interior looks great. I was sad to find that they're not open on Sundays, but I guess you've got to start somewhere.