Last Updated on January 21, 2024, 3:46 PM | Published: January 21, 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY — There is something kind of galling about the lines of cars poking onto 23rd Street from various chain coffee and donut businesses when you know that just a stone’s throw away on Robinson you can enjoy Toast & Coffee.
For owners Shawn Churchman and Tom Spector, the conundrum is how to convince people they will actually save time by getting out of their cars and heading into a small, locally owned business for their morning cup of get-up-and-go, rather than stewing endlessly in their idling vehicles waiting for a lesser product.
When Starbucks arrived on Northwest 23rd Street in OKC’s Uptown 23rd District, it was both a long time coming and a quickly regretted change. Add in a Dunkin Donuts down the street and whatever McDonald’s is currently calling their caffeinated brown water and it’s a wonder places like Toast & Coffee even exist.
But this one does, thank goodness and it is all down to Shawn and Tom and their vision for a true neighborhood hub. As owners of the building, this married duo has the luxury of patience. Toast & Coffee doesn’t have to be an overnight success, but they sure would appreciate if it became an everyday success.
Churchman and Spector are recently retired college professors with a dream to bring that big city neighborhood feeling to Oklahoma City. Their hope is for the many neighbors dwelling in nearby houses and apartment buildings to walk on over, chat with each other, and bond over a gourmet breakfast treat and a piping hot cup of EOTE’s special T&C roasts The Enoch Light Blend or Darkside of the Blend.
And it shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve, as this restaurant checks so many desirable boxes for the Oklahoma City eatarati. It’s local. The coffee is local. The bread is local. The employees kind of have to be local, but still. Oh, and I should point out, the food is good. You might imagine that that should be at the top of the list, and for some it might be, but there is an ethos and a philosophy behind Toast & Coffee that makes it all the more irresistible.
Apologies, by the way, for anyone who feels slighted or maligned by my dismissive take on chain coffee joints. We all have different lives, different needs, different desires, and it is not wrong to have those taken care of how we see fit. It is just that spots like this one feel so many of those needs while also providing a place of community and connection. Churchman likened it to his time in the classroom when he taught musical theater at the University of Oklahoma.
Sitting down in that class had barriers to entry, like acceptance and admission and tuition. But other than those requirements and the shared desire to learn, it didn’t matter one’s age or background or politics. It was a place to learn and to connect with those who felt the same.
In Jefferson Park, Toast & Coffee is something like that classroom, but with even fewer barriers. Whether you walk over or you find one of those angled parking spots in front, once you come inside it’s about the toast and the coffee and the people.
The kitchen at Toast & Coffee is pretty small and therefore lacks a few of those items one might associate with breakfast. Without a deep fryer and a griddle, the team was pushed to create a simple but varied menu that has been delighting diners for the past year. The basic toast is just that. Good bread, toasted, slathered in sweet cream butter and just as delicious as it sounds.
But for those who require some protein with their carbs, there are plenty of choices. Eggs, sadly, are not one of them, though I would love to see some poached or hard-boiled ovum join the lineup in the future.
The Uptown Benedict is one of the more filling options. The bread is topped with sliced smoked ham and gruyere cheese before being slathered in creamy hollandaise sauce studded with roasted heirloom cherry tomatoes and microgreens. Anyone tempted to manhandle this beast should consider using a knife and fork instead, lest they wear some of their toast to go. The absence of the egg is truly the only demerit here, but the flavors and the fill-you-up factor make sure diners won’t miss it too much.
On the TNC Cheese toast, the protein comes from a sweet and smoky bacon-and-onion jam topped with burnished melted Havarti and gruyere cheeses that hold it all together. It is clear how much work has gone into these recipes, and how much trial and error and correction has been applied. Serving up bacon jam and cheese on toast sounds easy, but it is difficult to pull off in the real world, especially in a kitchen without a stovetop. There’s one other ingredient on the toast, and it’s not love, though you might find a bit in there. It’s pepperoncini. Diced up and hidden beneath the cheese, this mild but tangy pepper is absolutely necessary to the success of this toast. Bacon and onion jam is a marvel. And even lactose intolerant people love cheese, if not the aftereffects. But those rich ingredients would soon grow stale on the palate without the vinegary pop of the pepperoncini slicing through and resetting the tongue for the next bite. Its importance cannot be overstated, so think twice before requesting its ouster.
The Avocado Smash is, by this point, a must on any breakfast menu, though this version is far tastier than the mass-market avocado toasts available at national breakfast chains. A plentiful layer of avocado acts as a tasty glue for crumbled goat cheese, microgreens, and roasted tomatoes, but the secret stars of the show are the drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt. The grassy flavor of the olive oil brings a fruity pop to each bite and the occasional crunch of sea salt enhances the mild avocado’s fattiness.
On the coffee front, I prefer the richer Darkside of the Blend, which is used for espresso drinks, to the lighter roast of the Enoch Light Blend used for drip, but your mileage may vary.
Though it’s not toast or coffee, the pastries made by chef Kimberly Bugler are a delightful addition to the menu. The blueberry muffin is almost more berry than muffin in the best way possible. Slap a pat of butter on top to add creamy richness to the sweet-tart punch of the fresh blueberries. Churchman said it was the luckiest of breaks to nab Bugler’s talents for the cafe, so don’t be surprised if you show up late and they’re all sold out.
Time will tell if T&C can be the central meeting spot for Uptown’s many neighborhoods, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the rest of the metro is wishing they had someplace like Toast & Coffee within walking distance of their homes.
Toast & Coffee
- 2416 North Robinson Avenue in Oklahoma City
- (405) 778-6294
- toastandcoffeeokc.com
- Mon.-Tue. and Thurs.-Sat. 7 a.m.-3 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
Long-time food enjoyer Greg Elwell writes about food, restaurants, and trends. He has his own blog "I Ate Oklahoma" and has written for The Oklahoman, The Oklahoma Gazette, and others.
