Toast
5800 Nave Dr.
Novato
(415) 382-1144
www.toastnovato.com
Comfort Food
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner daily
Entrées: $8.50-$19.95 (dinner)
Good wine list
The first thing you’ll notice at Novato’s Toast, which is its second and newest location (the first being in Mill Valley), is its décor. Designed by architect Stanley Saitowitz, it literally looks like a piece of toast—with the crevices and everything. There’s a large bar at the entrance, which sits in the middle of the room and has plenty of stools and a couple flat-screen TVs. There’s also an open kitchen with more bar seating and a wood-burning oven. We were there for lunch, but Chef Mike Garcia has separate menus for breakfast and dinner, as well as a nice beer and wine list.
Roasted corn chowder came first, topped with a garnish of grilled shrimp salsa. The texture-rich chowder had a nice spicy heat to it, cooled by some chopped cilantro. The vegetable white bean soup was more mild in flavor with whole beans in a tomato-based broth with carrots, herbs and grana padana cheese. Both were well-paired with a crisp 2006 Marimar Torres Chardonnay (especially the chowder).
Next we split the chicken watermelon salad (a large portion), which was chopped lettuce, marinated grilled chicken strips, daikon radishes, bean sprouts, crispy rice noodles, thin-sliced watermelon and carrots topped with a light peanut vinaigrette with poppy seeds and whole roasted peanuts. It was piled into a tower and was very fun and interesting to eat because of all the textures and the play between sweet and savory. It was paired with a fruity 2007 Pomelo Sauvignon Blanc (hints of white peaches).
For entrées, we first had the barbecue pulled pork sandwich, served on a fresh, toasted bun (hey! toast!) with cole slaw on top. The saucy dish had lots of tender pork with a building heat, and was paired with a bright 2006 Razor’s Edge Shiraz Grenache (red fruit, firm tannins). As a side, we ordered the parmesan truffle fries, which were rich with truffle oil and had a sprinkle of herbs and fresh grated cheese on top.
The baked cannelloni came with two rolls of pasta filled with mozzarella cheese and topped with sliced root vegetables, a sweet tomato sauce and fresh greens. It was paired with a feminine 2007 La Forge Pinot Noir that ran along very similar flavor lines.
It was hard to choose dessert—there were so many interesting selections: banana cream pie, coconut crème brulée, vanilla Heath bar bread pudding…you get the picture. We finally chose the blackberry crisp, served hot with a thick layer of crust on top and rich vanilla ice cream; and the apple fritter, with thick chunks of apple in a cinnamon/sugar-sprinkled fritter dough, fried golden brown and also served with vanilla ice cream.
All we needed after that was a nice, long siesta.
