Fl
Raise a Toast
Elevating the world's best comfort food to an art form, a new Glasgow café called TOAST has just popped up.
Words: Jonathan Trew
Glasgow's Merchant (‘ity was
never moribund but a flurry of
recent bar and cafe openings has got the joint jumping like the proyerbial moggy on a hot tin roof. The l‘irkin chain have just opened their liruitmarket and l’irkin pub. the Market Bar has had its doors
open since July and new deli/diner
l.‘()range Bleu is tempting in the customers from early in the morning until late at night. Swelling their ranks is the recently opened Toast on Albion Street. As chic as any of the style bars dotted about Glasgow. this
CHEI' NOIIS
place has set about making a superstar out of garden toast. Boasting Phillippe Starck furniture. a vibrant shop front designed by trend-setting design agency Graven Image and the kind
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and a glass offizz. Excellent value at £ 1 6 per person.
12 Ashton Lane
Tel 0141-334 3007
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of crockery that would make ('onran swoon with jealousy. Toast is the Porsche of cafés.
It's all the brainchild of 26- year-old Natalie Bailley who had seen the way in which businesses like the Seattle Coffee (‘ompany had updated the image of the coffee house and rolled out the concept across the country.
‘There’s nothing quite like this in Glasgow.’ says Bailley collapsing into a large leather couch and looking around the airy cafe. ‘We're getting a real cross section from folk in suits to students and a lot of
single women who perhaps don't feel
comfortable going into a bar on their own so they‘re coming here to relax over a coffee. Also. people lead such busy lives that the days of the big boozy lunch are long gone. People just want to nip in. have something nice and then nip out again.‘
As well as good old fashioned toast. served with jam. nutella. marmite. honey or peanut butter for £1. Toast also do a mean line in focaccia and ciabatta creations. A simple bruschetta will cater for a slight twinge of hunger at £1.75 while £4.95 will fetch you a waistline-busting lamb burger on focaccia with cherry tomato and red onion salsa. Apparently the zucchini with crumbled feta cheese on bruschetta is popular as is the toast Florentina which features spinach and eg 'l‘raditionalists will find comfort Toast‘s special bacon buttie.
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Toast: they know how to butter up their customers
While on the vaguely breakfast-orientated subject of bacon. Toast opens from eight in the morning and Bailley was surprised that Saturday morning is one of Toast‘s busiest times as people stock up on fuel before going twelve rounds with the Great Glasgow Shopping Experience.
If you must insist on getting up at some ungodly early hour then you‘ll need chemical help to keep the eyes open and coffee has the marked advantage over other
Toast: 'You want your
machiatto skinny with wings? At Toast, they speak the coffee lingo and will indulge your wildest caffeine fantasies.’
stimulants of being legal and unlikely to make you talk rubbish for hours. Despite the fact that Bailley has a penchant for smoothies and doesn‘t like any hot drinks. Toast do a massive range of coffees and will fix your cup of joe any which way you choose to name. You want your machiatto skinny with wings'.’ At Toast. they speak the coffee lingo and will indulge your wildest caffeine fantasies.
lf Toast takes off. and it‘s doing very well after being open for less than a week. then Bailley already has her eye on two other sites in Glasgow. She could even become the toast of the town.
Toast, 86 Albion Street, 0141 552 3044.