Unable to find a restaurant in the East Bay that features avocado toast as its signature menu item, Linh Jee and Sophia Cheng decided to open one themselves.
Two longtime friends who shared a desire to open their own business, Lee and Cheng landed on Toastique, an East Coast brand that has popped off since opening its first Washington, D.C., store in 2018.
Last week, Toastique opened its first Bay Area location as it began serving gourmet toast in Danville.
“We wanted to have a healthy option without having to go through the sit-down experience,” said Lee, a Castro Valley resident with a background in product development. “There’s no fast-casual places to offer healthy fresh ingredients where you can leave not feeling like you just ate a cow.”
Toatsique was started seven years ago by former Division I cheerleader Brianna Keefe, who was fine-tuning her own avocado toast throughout her career at James Madison University. Within four years, Keefe was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30. Toastique has since expanded with franchised stores all over the country.
The store offers six different kinds of bread with nine different topping combinations.
The original avocado smash toast ($15) includes watermelon radish, marinated tomatoes, chili oil and microgreens on multigrain bread. The tuscan tuna ($15), spicy crab ($17) and peanut butter ($13) toasts are among Lee’s favorite items on the menu.
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There are also eight kinds of acai bowls ($14), smoothies ($11), coffee, tea, collagens, fresh pressed juices, shots and all sorts of related healthy snacks.
The Danville location opened to long lines on Nov. 16 and the owners have been excited about the store’s popularity so far.
“Downtown Danville is the one city outside Walnut Creek that has a true downtown destination and it’s walkable and clean with lots of restaurants,” Lee said. “People from Castro Valley drive to Danville for nice dinners if they don’t want to over the bridge. Things are going really well.”
Lee and Cheng are already eyeing more Bay Area locations, with their sights set on possible stores in Marin, Burlingame, San Mateo and the South Bay.
Details: Open daily, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT, at 350 Railroad Avenue in Danville; toastique.com.
Toastique is bringing gourmet toasts, smoothie bowls, cold-pressed juices and more to its first Bay Area location in Danville (photos courtesy of Toastique).