Toast on Market
736 E. Market St., 569-4099
If a location can make or break a restaurant, Toast on Market is ahead of the game. It opened this summer on what’s shaping up to be the city’s newest "restaurant row," occupying the former Shel-Mar Theater. Louisville needed another lively brunch venue and Toast serves up breakfast from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, as well as lunch items during the noon hour. Toast’s earth-tone palette of burnt orange, soft brown, muted yellow and olive green provides a cozy atmosphere that is accented by whimsical large-canvas portraits, creating a vibe that is both welcoming and carefree.
The menu follows suit. Chef George Morris describes the concept simply as comfort foods he likes but seldom sees. The plentiful breakfast menu lists the expected pancake, French toast, egg and omelet categories — but with numerous creative twists. (An a la carte menu makes it possible to sample smaller portions.) Pancake options range from traditional buttermilk to gingerbread. Omelets combine chorizo and manchego or rock shrimp and Creole sauce. Or how about this for only the most robust of appetites — beef cakes, which combine pot roast and gravy over buttermilk pancakes with a sour cream and chive potato cake.
I couldn’t resist the lemon souffle pancakes ($3 a la cart, $7.50 entree). These fluffy pancakes full of lemony flavor were drizzled with blueberry compote (made with frozen blueberries, not canned) and vanilla custard. Despite the saccharine ingredients, the dish wasn’t saturated in sweetness; it balanced both sweet and tart successfully.
Huevos ahogados ($4.50), or "drowned eggs," resembled two fresh balls of mozzarella sitting in bowl of tomato soup. In actuality, two poached eggs were immersed in a tomato cilantro sauce. I’m not a huge cilantro fan, but I enjoyed this light dish. It gave new meaning to "egg drop soup" — when I poked into it, warm yolk spilled into the bowl, thickening the broth and creating a great dipper for my brioche toast (which, like all Toast breads, is from Breadworks).
My husband ordered the Elvis-inspired "King" ($7.50), a brioche French toast sandwich stuffed with bananas, peanut butter and mascarpone cheese that’s topped with syrup. Basically this took a classic childhood sandwich and jazzed it up for mature audiences (and eaters). The filling did not overpower the thick, eggy brioche. However, it did call for some extra glasses of water, and, thankfully, Consumers Choice coffee flowed freely. The French toast and egg dishes came with a scoop of hash-brown casserole. The recipe for this tasty concoction of cubed potatoes, cheese, red pepper, onions and sour cream came directly from Morris’ mom. Warm, creamy and scrumptious, it was easy to see why Morris decided to share this family heirloom.
The lunch menu features standard salads and hot and cold sandwiches. A separate section lists specialty grilled cheese sandwiches (each served with roasted tomato soup). Along with the customary three cheeses were a spicy chipotle, garlic cheddar and Caprese. The Caprese ($8.50) melted together mozzarella, provolone, fresh basil and tomatoes between white bread slices. I enjoyed the fresh flavor, but would’ve liked a more potent amount of basil and tomato and, perhaps, a sharper variety of cheeses. It was much milder than I had hoped for.
Unlike the grilled cheese, the meatloaf sandwich ($7.25) was rather greasy. The bottom layer of buttered brioche became quite soggy under a hefty chunk of housemade ground-beef meatloaf that was topped with grilled onions, tomato and a cayenne aioli. Dense like a hamburger, the meatloaf was juicy and flavorful and the aioli resembled Thousand Island dressing, which brought to mind a patty-melt, only in this case much thicker. I enjoyed it, but needed lots of extra napkins. Sandwiches come with a choice of chips, potato salad or pasta salad. Soups are also available.
While I found breakfast to be more impressive than lunch, I would revisit Toast for either meal. Morris plans on consolidating the two menus to make a special week/files/storyimages/brunch. Then, perhaps, I could do both at once.
