Toast (not the kind with alcohol)
Toast is a new sandwich place in downtown Durham (near the Book Exchange and just past Brightleaf), also open for breakfast on weekdays. They have two kinds of sandwiches: panini (hot) and tramezzini (cold). They also have bruschetta and very cute little crostini, plus soups, a salad, and some desserts. Apparently most of the ingredients are local, the rest from Italy, and they’re combined in really great ways (spicy tuna, olivada, fennel and lemon—awesome). It’s also pretty cheap considering the quality of the ingredients—the most expensive thing on the menu is $6. The place is really nice inside: well lit and cheerful and green. I’ve heard they’re getting wireless at some point, and it would probably be a great place to study (though they don’t seem to have many outlets and it gets pretty busy at lunchtime).
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We landed at Toast last night due to a fluke, desperate for something to eat before attending an event at DPAC (Toast is within walking distance.) I generally have a ho-hum, “been there, done that” attitude towards sandwich shops because so few of them do anything inventive. Toast is one of those few.
Toast’s seating area is small and very casual, lending itself to a relaxing, informal meal. Ordering from the counter, we tried the grilled chicken panini (with roasted peppers, mozzarella and salsa verde), shrimp and sunchoke salad tramazinni (with watercress) and two daily specials–lentil/sausage soup and a calamari stew. We were astounded with every bite!
The grilled chicken panini held generous portions of chicken breast, juxtaposed with ooey gooy cheese and crunchy bread, and was grilled to perfection. The shrimp in the shrimp and sunchoke salad had good flavor and the sunchokes gave, dare I say, provided *inventive* bites of crunch.
Rockyhillguy–a sausage fiend despite my best efforts to keep him healthy–proclaimed the sausage in the lentil sausage soup to be terrific, providing the soup with a wonderful, permeating flavor.
Calamari is a dish, usually an appetizer, we routinely order whenever a menu offers it. We’ve had calamari of every stripe, all over the country. We couldn’t believe, and here is that word again, how *inventive* Toast’s calamari stew is! Joined with kale and offered with a couple of slices of toasted, crusty bread for dipping, the calamari stew was exquisite. It’s thick, spicy tomato broth was so excellent that Rockyhillguy and I, who usually differ on whether something is “too spicy” or “just right,” wholeheartedly agreed that it was perfect.
Not a lot of dining options exist within walking distance of the DPAC, outside of the American Tobacco District’s offerings. We consider our discovery of Toast to be pure serendipity and agreed that, not only is Toast worth another visit before an event, it is a destination worth enjoying in it’s own right.
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