Latest SF food trend: Artisanal Toast? (San Francisco, Oakland: 2013, rent, house)

[18Montclair]

My cousin from London texted me this accompanied with an 'LOL' to which I replied ' dont be jealous'

The new 'artisanal toast bars' springing up in San Francisco - and UK | Mail Online

[04kL4nD]

A fool and his money are soon parted.

[pch1013]

This all began when people started paying $1 a quart for the stuff that comes almost free out of the tap.

[artemis78]

The place in the article isn't a "toast bar"--that's Josey Baker Bread's bakery, which also has a cafe that sells toast made from their house breads, along with pastries, like most other cafes. Their bread is pricey ($6/loaf) but excellent; we used to get it delivered (for not quite so much!) when he was first starting out in Oakland years ago. So if you take a hearty slice of a $6 loaf and add schmancy preserves and rent for sitting at a cafe table in NoPa, that gets you to $4 pretty easily these days. You pay about the same at most of the other cafes that make their own bread, for better or worse. I'd hardly call it a new trend, though. Berkeley and Oakland have dozens of bakeries and breakfast spots that charge $3-$5 for pastries or fancy breads with jams (some of which are decades-old institutions), and this is supposed to be the "cheap" side of the Bay! I can't imagine the going rate in San Francisco is less. (That's not to say you can't go buy or make your own bread and jam for a fraction of the price--just that it's not exactly a surprising new development, anymore than $2+ cups of coffee or $3+ cappuccinos are new.)

[commonparlance]

This is old news:

$4 toast: Why the tech industry is ruining San Francisco | VentureBeat | OffBeat | by J. O'Dell

It's true that $4 isn't really all that much for a slice of high-quality bread and jam, given that in this city a cup of "third-wave" coffee can cost you $4-5 and a 1 BR apt goes for $2800. Still, it's hard not to feel like the trend of gussying up mundane/lowbrow things by using "artisinal" ingredients and then selling them rich folks has reached a new level of ridiculousness.

[bigdumbgod]

Next up: Foie Gras Donuts

Or maybe a more sophisticated version of an old favorite: Tauqueaux Belle

[CousinMaynard]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Next up: Foie Gras Donuts

Or maybe a more sophisticated version of an old favorite: Tauqueaux Belle

The masculine noun "Taqueaux" is also plural and since the adjective needs to agree the its not belle its "Beaux", barbarian.

NOt only that, anybody who eats there is a poser anyway , every body knows the deux tacos pour seulement 99 cennes chez la boite a surprise are way better then taco hell

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by CousinMaynard

The masculine noun "Taqueaux" is also plural and since the adjective needs to agree the its not belle its "Beaux", barbarian.

NOt only that, anybody who eats there is a poser anyway , every body knows the deux tacos pour seulement 99 cennes chez la boite a surprise are way better then taco hell

I'll have a Regular Nacheauxs with that, please. Trying to fill out my skinny jeans.

[lrmsd]

Supposedly, the person who started the trend had no intention of doing so, and in fact did it as a means to support herself...'Trouble' cafe=amazing story!
How Did Toast Become the Latest Artisanal Food Craze? - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society

Although, as others mentioned, gourmet toast/bread with toppings such as smashed avocado, home made jam, nut butter, etc are certainly not new and did not begin in SFO.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

This reminds me of the fad of serving wilted lettuce back in around 1990?

I had just moved back to CA from living in rural WA, and went out on a date with a poser kind of guy. He ordered us some wilted lettuce, I remember laughing, thinking it was a joke.

He didn't ask me out again LOL!