Toast Coffeehouse opens takeout spot Toast Express in Holbrook office building
A roast beef and avocado wrap to go from Toast Express, which has opened in the lobby of a Holbrook office building. Credit: Newsday/Corin Hirsch
The word Toast, at least on Long Island, is not generally synonymous with a quick meal. The breakfast-to-lunch spots with this name are so popular that they can be thronged, especially during weekend brunch. The newest Toast, in a Holbrook office building, is designed to run counter to that.
Toast Express debuted last week in the corner of the lobby of a building on Veterans Memorial Highway, across from Long Island MacArthur Airport. The modest-looking takeout spot occupies a kiosk that used to be a Tropical Smoothie Cafe with a compressed Toast menu and a handful of nearby tables.
"We took all of the things that make us Toast and we consolidated and streamlined them for takeout," said Terence Scarlato, who owns or co-owns the other three Toast Coffeehouses in Patchogue, Port Jefferson and Bay Shore. (Scarlato founded Toast in Port Jeff 17 years ago).
The Toast Express menu has the requisite coffee, espresso, smoothies and iced teas (earlier this week, the fruit tea of the day was a passion fruit tea with fresh berries) as well as breakfast dishes such as overnight oats, a waffle, breakfast sandwiches and a new menu item, avocado toast. Lunchtime brings classic Toast sandwiches such as the Bad Larry and Bayou Flat, plus a handful of wraps and salads; breakfast items cost $3 to $4, while sandwiches and salads are $11.
How fast is it? A roast beef and avocado wrap ordered at 2:45 p.m. on Monday was ready about four minutes later, and well turned out, with fresh greens, neat char marks and perfect layering.
Toast Express is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays at 4250 Veterans Hwy., Holbrook. toastcoffeehouse.com.
