Where To Eat The Best Artisanal Toast

Take really good bread. Slice. Toast. Pile lots of delicious stuff on top of it.

It almost sounds too easy, but that's the basic idea behind artisanal toast, which has been taking over menus lately. No, this isn't an episode of Portlandia—and we have to admit, we're into it. And so are chefs, apparently.

"Traditionally, toasting was a way to revive old bread past its prime, but these days, people are using toast as a vehicle for all sorts of awesome ideas," says San Francisco's Josey Baker, he of the $4 toast brouhaha earlier this year. "Toast is being used as a label for a wide array of delicious and complex bread/spread pairings."

Indeed. Here's how we'd like to take our toast at every meal of the day:

Breakfast: Sqirl in L.A.
While most restaurants focus their efforts on dinner service, Jessica Koslow is way more interested in the first meal of the day. And it shows. At Sqirl, her tiny cafe in hipster-ific Silver Lake, just east of Los Angeles, she churns out toasts worth lining up for (and people do). Koslow spreads homemade jams, like a Santa Rosa plum and thyme combo, which has a cult following of its own, over house-made brioche. She goes for the gusto with more savory versions, too, like tarragon cream cocotte over a thin, toasted baguette slice.

Lunch: ABC Kitchen in New York City
Chef Dan Kluger makes open-faced magic at the greenmarket-centric restaurant under Jean-Georges Vongerichten's helm. His already legendary crab toast, dotted with lemony aioli, is a necessity for any lunchtime spread. And although Kluger is leaving the restaurant at the end of the month, JGV himself already has several toasts in the works to continue the legacy: eggplant with marinated sweet and spicy peppers; radishes topped with mustard butter and radish sprout; sweet peas dotted with ricotta and chive blossoms; and salmon carpaccio with sugar snap pea remoulade (already on the menu). As for Kluger's next plans, well, we're praying there's toast involved.

Snack: The Mill in San Francisco
Question: When is a crisp, golden-brown, condiment-layered piece of bread worth $4? Answer: Anytime Josey Baker hands it to you. It all begins with good bread, which Baker bakes in-house at The Mill, a joint coffee-bakery venture with Four Barrel Coffee. Then he spoons sugar and preserves on top and voilà—the best snack ever. One of his most popular toasts is a dense rye bread coated in cinnamon-sugar. Groupies can bring the baked deliciousness home by nabbing the recipe in his new, beginner-friendly cookbook.

Dinner: Vernick Food & Drink in Philadelphia
Gregory Vernick's menu begins like an ode: "On Toast." It goes onto to list seven on-bread combos. There's toast with fromage blanc and pickled ramps, one topped with sweet peas and bacon and another crowned with beef tartare and fresh horseradish. Why so many toasts? "They're comforting and casual, but they're also a blank canvas," says Vernick. At the moment, he's topping bread with soft shell crab and working on a corn pudding spread for late summer.