“We have classics like pancakes and egg dishes, so we hit the traditional as well as the interesting and unique ways of preparing breakfast favorites.”
Case in point: the Toast & Berry French toast. Ordinary French toast involves soaking a simple slice of bread in a batter and then grilling it. At Toast & Berry, flavor gets baked into the bread before it’s browned. Chefs layer alternate layers of bread batter and flavors to create a unique bread pudding-style loaf to make the base of the dish.
Each bread loaf becomes a masterpiece of French toast, including Cinnamon Roll drizzled with cream cheese frosting and powdered sugar and Blueberry Lemon topped with blueberry compote, cream cheese frosting, and powdered sugar.
Schmidt shared that chefs and menu planners are working on a new line of seasonal flavors for a collection of Fall French toast dishes. The new menu will likely debut in mid-to-late September.
For sweet and savory lovers, try one of the French toasts as part of Toast & Berry’s Chicken and Toast pairings — a fun switch-up of the classic chicken and waffles dish. Waffle lovers don’t need to despair, though. The Waffle & Smoked Pork sandwich combines a Belgian waffle, smoked slice pork shoulder, fried egg, and American cheese into a substantial sandwich.
Other tempting twists on traditional breakfast dishes from Toast & Berry include the roasted chicken hash made with smoked gouda cheese, roasted chicken, smoked Gouda cheese sauce, green chiles, pimiento, sriracha aioli, a sunny-side-up egg, and green onions. It’s one of the restaurant’s top sellers and packs a lot of flavor into a single dish.
Customers can also try Toast & Berry’s spinach, gouda, and bacon omelet, the most popular egg dish on the menu.
And what’s breakfast without a mimosa? Toast & Berry has nine mimosa flavors on its menu, including traditional orange, strawberry, blueberry, grapefruit, pineapple, peach, raspberry, pomegranate, and mango. Can’t decide which one to order? Order the mimosa flight, which offers a sample of three favors. According to Schmidt, the mimosa flight accounts for about 20% of Toast & Berry’s weekly.
Another secret to Toast & Berry’s success, as seen on a recent busy Wednesday morning, lies within the restaurant’s expansive kitchen. When designing the Liberty Center location, Schmidt says the company wanted to ensure the chefs would have enough space to make almost everything from scratch to ensure food quality and safety. Each week, kitchen workers peel thousands of pounds of potatoes for their hash browns, squeeze nearly 40 cases of oranges each week for juice, crack hundreds of egg, and swhip up their homemade batters in their spacious food prep area.
“The Liberty location has a much larger kitchen than our Montgomery restaurant,” Schmidt said. “We have a dedicated gluten-free station and take incredible care to help reduce cross-contamination. All of the fryers are 100% gluten-free.”
In addition to providing a safe space for customers with gluten intolerances, Toast & Berry works hard to minimize allergen concerns, including nuts, dairy, and more. Schmidt explained that as a father with children with severe allergies, the mission to provide a safe and comfortable dining experience is “personal” to Toast & Berry.
“It’s a significant risk for people with these allergies and severe intolerances to go out to eat,” he said. “We want to minimize that fear as much as possible.”
For Schmidt and the rest of the Toast & Berry team, accessibility is the ultimate goal: from their food offerings to a manageable entry-point for customers looking to save a little money when going out for a nice meal.
“People want to be able to go out and indulge themselves,” he said. “You can get that full-service dining experience at a lower cost of entry than going out to dinner. And, besides, who doesn’t love breakfast?”
Toast & Berry Liberty Center is located at 7485 Gibson St., Liberty Township (adjacent to the AC Hotel by Marriott.) It is open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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