Breakfast ingredients are pretty simple: Eggs, potatoes, cheese, bread and some sort of meat. But when Joshua Smith joined The Friendly Toast last October as VP of culinary operations, he made it his mission to hone in on every ingredient and take it “from good to great,” he said.
That mission is the foundation of the menu refresh launched at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based all-day brunch concept this spring. Smith started by identifying and partnering with local and specialty producers to source these basics.
Fresh juices from small producer Natalie's inspired a nonalcoholic immunity flight.
“One product I’m really proud of is called New School American Cheese,” said Smith. “It originated with LA chef Eric Greenspan, who took a chef’s approach to basic American cheese, working with a cheesemaker to combine cheddar and cream. It’s the purest American cheese and goes well on a breakfast sandwich, a burger and many things. There was nothing wrong with the aged white cheddar we used before, but this cheese took it to the next level.” Smith recently started working with Baldor Specialty Foods and the distributor turned him on to the product and rolled it out to all 14 locations.
Bread got an upgrade too. Pain D’Avignon, a Cape Cod-based bakery, now supplies The Friendly Toast with breads and rolls. The products are made with organic flour milled from regenerative wheat, and the bakers employ a craft approach to the bread. “Instead of having normal sliced bread, we went for three-quarter-inch thickness,” said Smith. “We started with just a handful of their products, the brioche bun, the multi-grain and the country sourdough.”
And bacon now comes from North Country Smokehouse. These ingredients come together in the Upgraded B.E.C.: Soft, slow-cooked eggs, New School American Cheese, thick-cut slow-braised pork belly and onion jam (made in-house) on a grilled bun.
The evolution of an omelet
With several new products in the pantry, Smith took a stab at editing the menu. Longtime favorites like Brioche French Toast remained “but we stripped down some items that were not performing as well,” he said, “and temporarily removed dishes that we felt were good, but we wanted to have more time to work on.”
Others like the Philly Steak Omelet got a “renovation.”
“It’s basically a Philly cheesesteak wrapped in an egg, but we upgraded some of the ingredients,” said Smith. First, he swapped the roasted button mushrooms for shiitakes and creminis. Those more unique and flavorful mushrooms are now updating other menu items as well. Then the kitchen cooks onions and bell peppers on the plancha and melts down that New School American Cheese with a little milk to make a cheese sauce resembling a “whiz.” Smith is also sourcing a clean-label shaved ribeye; that’s cooked on the plancha too.
The egg cooking technique has also been elevated. Fresh eggs are beaten with a little cream, then cooked slowly in clarified butter so they puff up and “souffle” a little. The mushrooms, onions, peppers and steak are tucked inside the omelet, and it’s all bathed in the cheesy whiz.
“We took this cherry pepper jam that we already had in our repertoire and added that on top as a garnish,” Smith added. “You get a little bit of acid, the creaminess, the saltiness, for a delicious, almost luxurious omelet.”
The chef also introduced a reimagined Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. Called the Caesar’s Revenge, it has a base of shaved romaine and subs cotija cheese for the traditional Parmesan, a product The Friendly Toast already had on hand. It’s tossed with house-made Caesar dressing and Tajin.
“Then I thought, what if we took a 6-ounce chicken breast, marinated it, then pounded it thin so we could cook it fast on the plancha like a pallaird,” Smith recalls. “Then you place the salad on top.” The presentation is prettier and the eating experience easier.
Instead of croutons, the kitchen cuts very thin strips from corn tortillas and fries them crisp. “That makes it a gluten-free dish that everybody can eat,” said Smith, “and it's kind of different, kind of a retro feel.”
Streamlining for success
Smith tried to be very intentional around maintaining the integrity of the menu without creating too much stress for the kitchen. “We were introducing a lot of new techniques and we wanted to be mindful of how we were training the team to make sure they had the time to learn these new skills,” said Smith.
For example, the kitchen team was now braising pork belly and hand-cutting bacon, plus making corned beef in house for the hash. And The Friendly Toast added more scratch-made items, like fresh-baked jalapeño cheddar biscuits and onion jam.
“Some former dishes didn’t make the cut for now, but will be revisited later,” said Smith.
The Monte Madame is one such dish. A mainstay on the menu for some time, the item is a cross between a Monte Cristo sandwich and a Croque Madame, layered with ham and cheese and baked with bechamel. “The Monte Madame is on the books to be rebooted and I expect it to come back at the end of summer to launch with our Fall menu. We want to revisit the bread and how we prepare it,” said Smith.
Most of the brunch entrees fall in the $15-$20 range, but The Friendly Toast is a full-service restaurant and the drinks side of the menu is a draw; about 25% of sales come from beverages. With the refresh, the bar selection has been expanded to include beer and wine. Local brews such as Maine Beer Co.’s Lunch IPA support the menu mission.
True to its name, cocktail flights are a fan favorite at The Friendly Toast.
The updated list now includes specialty mocktails such as the Spicy Norita, made with Tajin, Mineragua, muddled jalapeño, lime and Mike’s Hot Honey, as well as classic cocktails like the Strawberry Lemon Drop Martini. Friendly Flights are also available, with options including the Mimosa Flight, Secret Garden Flight with fruity and botanical flavors and the Caffeine Dreams Flight for coffee enthusiasts.
“We partnered with Natalie's, a brand that does a wonderful job with fresh juices,” said Smith. “So we also have a creative immunity flight that features all the different juices within their portfolio.”
Next up on the food front, he is looking to amplify the lunch items, with a focus on sandwiches and burgers. “Guests can come in, grab a glass of wine at the bar and have interesting food at 2 or 3 in the afternoon,” Smith said. But brunch fans will still have that refreshed all-day menu, too.