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The Latest in Artisanal Food: Toast


FunnyJohn

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http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/toast-story-latest-artisanal-food-craze-72676/?src=longreads

"The coffee shop, called the Red Door, was a spare little operation tucked into the corner of a chic industrial-style art gallery and event space (clients include Facebook, Microsoft, Evernote, Google) in downtown San Francisco. There were just three employees working behind the counter: one making coffee, one taking orders, and the soulful guy making toast. In front of him, laid out in a neat row, were a few long Pullman loaves"”the boxy Wonder Bread shape, like a train car, but recognizably handmade and freshly baked. And on the brief menu, toast was a standalone item"”at $3 per slice.

It took me just a few seconds to digest what this meant: that toast, like the cupcake and the dill pickle before it, had been elevated to the artisanal plane. So I ordered some. It was pretty good. It tasted just like toast, but better."

ok - this is San Francisco -- but $3 for a toasted slice of bread w/butter -- Really?

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That is an incredible story.  Wow.  Thanks for posting it.

On the specific subject of toast, David Lebovitz wrote an interesting account of a visit to The Mill on a recent trip back to San Francisco. (That's when I first encountered the toast trend.)

And on the free association front, I seem to recall that Betty Joan's blog is called "The trouble with toast."  That hit me for some reason as I was reading the account of why/how Trouble came to be.

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Toast:  An artisanal food. OMG.

Several thoughts come to mind.

1 and first  "that's absurd".

2.  I do love bread(s) and toasted breads are often fantastic

3.  $3.00 for a slice of toast with something on it~~ absurd

4.  Breads or toast with wondrous spreads are indeed often spectacular

5.  How much can you make off of that?  Bakeries will often sell breads at what I assume are good markups.  Heidelburg in Arlington sells a 1 lb rye for $3.45 and a 2 lb rye for $6.90.   What do the ingredients cost?   Don't know...but I'm going to guess $0.75 for the 1 lb rye.  (wild @ssed guess)  ingredients and every other item including labor plastic bag, etc etc etc.

Say 15 slices at $3.00/slice   with spreads and labor...That is potentially $45 of income off of a starting cost of $0.75 plus the additional costs of labor making the toast and the cost of spreads, plus spices like cinnamon, etc.....

Now that is a lot of mark up...but its something people may or will pay...and its the type of income that enables businesses like Heidelburg to stay in business, pay the employees, pay the rent, insurance, yada yada yada of endless costs and still make desirable foods and products.

.....all of which is a lot of thinkin about a slice of toast   ;)

but if they can do it and people will buy it and it supports the establishment/bakery, and keeps bakers working...and since I so love breads...I'll probably end up being a customer somewhere for a slice of "toast"  for $ 3 or more bucks.

Go for it.

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Toast:  An artisanal food. OMG.

Toast is a comfort food, especially cinnamon toast, it seems. Toast brings people back to basics and to childhood.  For many people, $3 is probably a small price to pay for that.

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Ship's Coffee Shops in West Los Angeles, with their angular spaceship 60's architecture, were where a lot of teenaged socializing went on in my youth. There was a toaster on every table, and breakfast all day included a pile of sliced bread of choice--white, rye or wheat. Make your own toast. Butter it yourself with little squares of white papered pats of salted butter. And smear with the contents of little foil and plastic tubs of Smucker's jam.

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I do love toast. The first appliance I bought for myself after my divorce was a toaster.

Perhaps I need to open a toast kiosk. Location would have to be in an upscale area. Just imagine doling it out to Wall Street Banksters after a crash (at an appropriately high price point), when they are most in need of comfort. One could be mercenary about it and open up outside say, a trauma treatment center.

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