Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Toast Paninoteca

Toast Paninoteca is a new place on Main Street that opened a few weeks ago. I headed over there for lunch to try it out. As the name suggests, the restaurant features paninis and other wonderful concoctions on bread. The paninis are hot, grilled sandwiches, the tramezzini are cold sandwiches, the bruschetta and crostini are grilled and toasted respectively and topped with various things.

With bread as the main ingredient, high quality bread is essential. Toast's bread comes from the Rue Cler bakery and Guglhupf, so it doesn't get much better than that in Durham. Plus they are supporting local Durham businesses.

I am partial to any bread that is hot and contains melted cheese so Toast makes me very happy. I intend to try all of the panini. For my lunch I had a panini with rapini, Italian sausage and cheese, I think asiago but I cannot quite recall. The rapini, aka broccoli rabe (though it has no relation to broccoli), was seasoned with roasted garlic and a hint of red pepper flake. It reminded me of a pasta recipe from the Puglia region of Italy that I like to make.

In the next week or so, Toast will be getting it's liquor license to serve beer and wine. I am looking forward to going after work with my girlfriends for a glass of wine and some roasted mushroom, thyme and gorgonzola crostini and maybe some bacalao crostini.

9 comments:

Joe said...

The mushroom crostini are amazing. I ordered some a few nights ago; when I finished them, I got up and ordered four more orders' worth. :) I have yet to hear anyone say they haven't liked the food.

Anonymous said...

Because I'm pretty neurotic (and as a writer you might find this valuable):

In Italian, the plural does not have an "s" at the end. So, the singular of a toasted sandwich is panino; plural is panini. Similarly, raviolo --> ravioli; bruschetta --> bruschette (I think, I'm not sure on this last one and sure as hell don't speak Italian).

Just a friendly tip.

Anonymous said...

it's also incredibly cheap for the quality of food. Mathpants and I went in today, got a plate of warm olives, two bowls of soups, two panini (that is the plural, there's no such thing as paninis) and some honey/goat cheese/black pepper crostini, plus a cup of coffee and a drink for under $25. The food was all great, and the owners are awesome!

By the way, they're now opening at 8am instead of 7am.

K said...

B and D,

I hope you always order a biscotto with your coffee too.

Anonymous said...

hello!

i am so jazzed to hear it! can't wait to go, and well, toast! yummm..
love your blog, and have posted it on mine. how about it, kelly - can you post mine on yous? merci!

Anonymous said...

Kelly: At Toast I do indeed!

Bryan: You exist!

Anonymous said...

I don't really drink coffee and don't really like cookies that much. Clearly, I have no soul.

Cooking has begun.

Anonymous said...

Had an order of 5 different items from Toast on Friday. Didn't really like the soprasetta, but more a matter of taste than quality.

The great stuff: The shrimp bruschetta was the best thing I had put in my mouth in weeks. Goat cheese crostini with honey were excellent, as was the sausage panini. Great spot to pick up dinner on the way home from work.

Only hard part is the Capn' Crunch mouth I get from panini-eating.

DurhamFood said...

They're now only going to be opening from 11am :(

So much for my wonderful breakfasts there :( :(