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| - I feel a little awkward being the first to review this spot as I'm not a coffee drinker. Never have been, never will be (probably). Even more awkward? I'm writing this review after coming here not for breakfast or brunch, but for dinner. Yes, I'm weird (as my friends and family will happily confirm). So what am I doing here? Well, I'd seen Tea & Toast's photos of tasty looking baked goods and figured I'd stop by and check out the full menu. After all, they're in the beautiful new DeSoto Central Market in Downtown so I figured worst case scenario I could grab dinner at one of the other concepts in the building. On this trip however, the worst case scenario never played out. The food at Tea & Toast was simply too damn good.
Tea & Toast has all the makings of your typical Downtown Phoenix coffee joint (which are in almost absurd abundance especially in the Roosevelt Row area). Coffee offerings? Check. Espresso machine? Check. Baked goods in the display case? Check. What sets them apart however is the baked goods that are not displayed, along with their fairly wide array of tea concoctions. I don't drink tea that often, but unlike coffee I'm perfectly willing to give different tea flavors a once over. I saw they served something called a Charles Gray tea. I figured that's gotta be something resembling an Earl Grey (and it was) so I got a small cup of that.
Then my eyes wandered over to their Noble Bread menu. Aha! Now we're talking. Noble Bread for those who don't know is a wildly popular Phoenix based artisan bread maker. You'll find them at their main location on 22nd Street and McDowell, at farmers markets throughout town, as well as various restaurant menus throughout the valley. Here at Tea & Toast, they're using the bread as the base for some healthy (and not so healthy) creations with everything from fruits and veggies to eggs, to bacon, and so on. The one that caught my eye this time was the toasted bread with blueberry jam, whipped lemon curd, and ground up pistachios. Yup, that looks like a good dinner (go ahead, laugh). Next for dessert (go ahead, laugh again), I saw that they have a small selection of Nutella dishes. One of which was a croissant covered with brown butter and a side of warm Nutella spread. Yup, that should do.
Total cost for the tea, the toasted bread dish, and the croissant came to about $11. They make both the croissant and the bread dishes behind the main bar at DeSoto so it took about 5 minutes for the food to come out. As soon as I laid eyes on them, I knew it was worth the wait. I actually dived first into the croissant as I didn't want that Nutella to get cold. Good move. They gave me more than enough of it to spread on that buttery croissant. And yes, as you might imagine, it was heavenly. I made sure I didn't leave any Nutella behind on that one. Now for the toasted bread dish. Their bread rotates regularly but this time I got Noble's sourdough bread as the base. Score for me. The chunky blueberry jam and smooth lemon curd were fantastic and the pistachios gave it a little extra crunch while at the same time another level of sweetness. Basically played like a second dessert (which in hindsight, should've been obvious to me). The Gray tea I got to wash it down was good, though a little puzzling as it had foam. Admittedly I'm not a tea expert so I'm sure there was an explanation for the foam, but it didn't harm the texture at all. And it really did taste like an earl grey (at least to me).
So there you have it, the most unlikely dinner outing...well...probably ever. I think this place would do tremendously well as a breakfast spot for the downtown breakfast and coffee crowd, but at least for now it appears they're only open for lunch and dinner (which not coincidentally is when the DeSoto Market opens and closes). Maybe soon they'll open early so Tea & Toast can work its magic with the morning crowd. For now, whatever time of day you come, you can be sure they'll have some tasty baked goods available. Like I said, I can't speak for the coffee so if the coffee sucks feel free to offset my review. But if you're coming for Tea & Toast's tea and toast, well, if its their namesake its gotta be good, right?
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