Lord Bessie and I both had the day off today, and nothing spells relaxation or celebrates an open schedule like a late, leisurely breakfast. We’ve been dying and trying to eat at The Friendly Toast in Cambridge for well over two years now, so we’d created a fair amount of hype for this place all on our own. That is to say, we could very well have ruined it for ourselves, but instead it slipped into our preconceptions as if they were a well-worn shoe.
First the décor. It’s fun and eclectic and looks like Mad Men threw up all over it… in a good way. The seating style is standard diner, but the colors are vibrant and the wall coverings, inspired. Most of the artwork are vintage 50s style ads. You know the ones I’m talking about. They’ve usually got a bootleg June Cleaver hocking some homemaker’s “must-have” or animated products beckoning you with their cheesy cartoon smiles. Perfect accents for the hip vibe they’re cultivating without much effort.
But let’s get to the food – I know you’re curious. The breakfast menu is extensive and varied and the descriptions had us reading in circles. Pumpkin pancakes with Raisinettes? Drunkard’s French Toast with Grand Marnier and raspberry sauce? Hansel-&-Gretel gingerbread waffles with pomegranate molasses? You see where this is going. And I’m not even at the egg dishes – which outnumber the sweet stuff about 3 to 1.
In any case, Lord Bessie opted for the Green Eggs and Ham which consisted of two poached eggs with Virginia baked ham on anadama toast, topped with a light herb sauce and accompanied by homefries. (Oh, that anadama bread is apparently a New England classic made with cornmeal and molasses. I was unaware of this even though I was born and bred in Massachusetts. Was there a mass conspiracy to keep this from me?) I ordered the Egg-in-a-Hole which was described as two slices of crispy, buttery bread (the aforesaid anadama) with an egg in the middle and the same homefries.
First things first – these meals were YUGE. (The “Y” makes it sound bigger.) Not to worry, we were equal to the challenge, but let’s just say neither of us ate again until dinner, and then only because we were conditioned to do so. That anadama craziness is amazing. I love the sweetness to it, but also the slices were about 2” thick, hearty and airy all at once. And, if you’re a yolk fan like me, you’ll appreciate how the egg wasn’t too overcooked allowing some of that sticky, yellow goodness to ooze out over the bread. My only teeny, tiny criticism might involve the homefries. I liked the light spicy flavor and the thin scalloped slices, but I would’ve welcomed a smidgen of crispiness. All in all, though, a truly exceptional meal. In retrospect, I can’t imagine I didn’t have enough room in my stomach, but try as I might, I was eventually forced to orphan a few treasured pieces to my plate.
If you like breakfast food even a little, you gotta go to this place. I recommend waiting for an off day – not the weekend, not the summer, not even a quasi-state-centric holiday. Make it truly random or else you’ll be rebuffed by the long lines and jostling crowds as I was this summer. For my part, I’m already thinking about my next visit and my strategic edible voyage down their menu. I’d return just for those last three bites of anadama bread. Friendly Toast indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment