Foodies throughout Ann Arbor have a new place to dish out at lunch with the opening of Toastique at 200 East Washington Street. At the corner storefront of the same eight story building that has the Pura Vida Color Studio and Sottini’s Sub Shop, you can find health focused toast treats for lunch in the comfortably but tastefully restrained décor of the stores dining room.
“My husband and I met getting our master’s degrees in psychology. We knew how important the correlation is between food and mental health,” Candace Kovar, who co-owns the franchise with her husband Austin, said. When she discovered the Toastique brand Kovar said “I fell in love with the color, the quality.”
Kovar first fell in love with the brand on Instagram after she and her husband left graduate school and set off to figure out what brand they wanted to make their careers with, so it was appropriate that the press opening on August 8 was filled with influencers along with Treetown’s press. Local business owners from across town also took samples of the substantial pieces of gourmet toast being handed around the sunset-tinged store, Thursday evening.
“We eat with our eyes usually, and I was full just looking at it,” Kovar said of Toastique’s Instagram presence.
Toastique describes itself as “a gourmet toast and juice bar.” It is a franchise of high end eateries emphasizing high quality ingredients and preparation alongside flawlessly social media-worthy settings and packaging.
The main options for their toast include an avocado smash, a tomato burrata, a Greek toast, a three cheese Italian, a smoked salmon, a spicy crab option, a Tuscan tuna and a peanut butter crunch. What Toastique is selling is arguably a serious of gourmet open face sandwiches rather than toast. The food generally tastes excellent, if a bit prone to fall apart with each bite if you try to eat it like toast. But as long as you take advantage of the complimentary cutlery, and sit down in one of the comfy 21 seats of the store, you should be able to tuck in happily.
Juices are also available at Toastique in 16 ounce glasses – ranging from Metaboliz (cucumber, jalapeno, pineapple, apple and mint) to Defender (orange, carrot, apple, turmeric and lemon) – for $9.50 each. They also have granola bowls, and a spicy noodle option. While Kovar said this is a healthy option focused franchise and she is eager to see repeat customers, the prices range from $12 to $16 for the toasts. The bowls are all $13 each. Smoothies run for $10 for a 10 ounce to $12 for a 12 ounce. Even the shots – health food concoctions with names like “Immunity” (turmeric, ginger, lemon and black pepper) or “Detox” (aloe vera, lemon, lime and activated charcoal) are $5 apiece – and intended to be drunk like an alcoholic shot. This store prides itself on quality over everything else.
Only one coffee blend is going to be available for the drip coffees, cold brew, matcha, the nine espresso options and café au lait. But what makes it special is the freshness of its brew according to Hannah Stodeart, a roaster representing Lineage Coffee Roasting, an Orlando-based firm partnering with Toastique’s Florida locations to provide a unique coffee blend that combines beans from both Ethiopia and Brazil, where Stodart said that Lineage has a direct relationship with the farmers. And now that blend is being spread out from the Florida franchises across to the newest locations, like this one.
Stodeart said that the direct relationship with farmers allows for a product that constantly improves. “We get to work with them to partner on everything from the growing to the processing. So every single year the coffee gets better and better.”
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Ann Arbor will be the twenty-ninth Toastique location according to Austin, and the first franchise to open in the Midwest – the others being in Texas and on the coasts. Another 19 locations are in the works for this fast expanding chain, mostly, again, on the East or West coasts.
The Ann Arbor location of Toastique is also still obviously in the process of getting what Kovar called their “sea legs” but they are planning eventually on catering in the near future. Staff positions are posted on Indeed, offering $13 to $16 an hour for full or part time positions, and they can accommodate student schedules.
The official grand opening will be at 8 a.m. on August 10. Once the doors open to the public, the store plans to be open every day from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Toastique. 200 East Washington Street.
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
