Breakfast in Bridgetown

I was sitting at the counter at Toast the other day, watching something really cool unfolding: a restaurant kitchen that works well in a small space, produces good food, and everybody seems to get along. My days in the restaurant business were marked mostly by shouting, chaos and mediocre food — but I am lazy and incompetent.

Still, this was something different, and hearing the owner’s story made me realize how it came about: he’s a life-long restaurant guy! He told stories about following his dad to the old neighborhood bakery and coffee shop on Long Island and realizing he wanted to do it for a living. He came out here and worked for local kitchen kingpin David Machado (whom I interviewed here), and then opened his own place. Specifically, he opened a local place, with local food, in his own neighborhood. An admirable — and popular — idea.

So I thought I’d share what I wrote about the place for the book.

Toast

One man’s quest, a neighborhood’s gain

The way Donald Kotler sees it, every neighborhood needs a great breakfast place. So when he and some old restaurant friends wanted to open a place, it made sense to do breakfast in his own Woodstock neighborhood. Apparently, the neighborhood agreed: when Kotler opened Toast in August 2007, a 45-minute line lasted for two hours. The little place, which gave in to local suggestions to serve dinner four nights a week, has been hopping ever since.

“From the beginning we wanted to have a nice, neighborhood restaurant,” Kotler says. “Eighty percent of the people who eat and work here live in the neighborhood.”

Kotler’s other goal was to keep it simple — on the menu and in the space. “We wanted to take food and bring it back to its simplest form, not over-processing food or covering it with overly lemony hollandaise sauces, but letting the true flavors of the food stand out on their own.”

Toast’s appearance is also clean and simple, with bamboo tables and comfortable chairs. The room’s history is a little more interesting: it used to be Bad Ass Video, purveyor of porn, and the name lives on in the Bad Ass Sandwich (fried eggs, cured pork belly, and shaved Gouda on toast served with a potato rosti for $8.00).

One more thing about the space ties in with Kotler’s plan for the food: Toast is small — what you can see is all there is — meaning food can’t be kept for very long. So everything is fresh, and much of it (like jams, peppers, baked goods, and sausage) are made in-house. He’s even got some herbs growing out back.

“We wanted to bring fresher ingredients to the table,” he says, “like eggs that are no more than five days old instead of the ones at the supermarket that are five weeks old.”

A lot of the food is from local farmers and vendors (ask to see a list of suppliers), and Kotler has created a menu that is, as he puts it, more brunch than breakfast. You can get a burger at 8:00 a.m., for example. And there’s beer and half a dozen cocktails. You’ll find granola (called Hippies Use Front Door) and oatmeal, and a sweet onion tart called the Occasional Hedonist, with a poached egg, fresh herbs, and a light béarnaise sauce. You can get steak and eggs, a Benedict with chard and house-made sausage, and a chicken breast with eggs over easy.

Portions and prices (all less than $10.00, except for the steak) are quite reasonable, and everything I’ve had was tasty — never flashy, never awe-inspiring, but there’s a lot to be said for fresh ingredients cooked well. And the vibe, as you might expect from such a local place, is extremely welcoming and friendly. I’m also a sucker for any place that welcomes you with a little scone: the day I was there, it was cinnamon and raisin.

There’s even a dash of goofiness. The daily blue plate special (served on a blue plate) is often a mystery Chef’s Choice. “It changes every day, and sometimes we don’t even tell people what it is. We just say if you like food cooked a certain way, or if you have food allergies, this probably isn’t the dish for you. It’s our way of having a little bit of fun. One day it was a beef hash with poached eggs, and we sold out,” Kotler says.

Otherwise, Toast is wide open not only to changes (“we want to be a restaurant that says yes, ” says Kotler) but also to suggestions: at first there was no bacon on the menu, but enough diners said they wanted it that there’s now nitrate-free bacon.

What else would you expect from your little neighborhood brunch place?

Toast — brunch menu. 5222 SE 52nd Ave. 503-774-1020. Brunch served Wednesday through Sunday 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. $9–13 (cash and all major cards)

Wait: Can get long on weekends. Seating: About 32, with a few seats at a counter and summer seating outside. Large groups? Probably should call ahead. Portion size: Smallish but enough. Changes: Wide open. Coffee: Courier. Other drinks: Beer, wine, cocktails, juice, and juice drinks. Feel-goods: Everything’s fresh and local, organic and natural. Health options: The pork is nitrate-free. Tofu is on the menu and can be prepared to taste. WiFi? No.