Gluten-Free: The Friendly Toast

What is this amazing dish?
Keep reading & find out!

I had been wanting to go to The Friendly Toast since they opened in Portsmouth, NH with their 24 hour weekend hours, gluten-free options long before it was trendy and rave reviews from the increasing number of my friends who made the trek from greater Boston to eat there.  When they opened a second location at Technology Square in Cambridge, right around the corner from where I used to stay and a regular haunt of mine when I would be visiting the area from overseas for the better part of a decade, I was salivatingly desperate to go.

It took me three years to get there... but it was worth it.  I knew the night before where Bill, his mother Donna, Liberty and I would be going for lunch after an appointment in Kendall Square this past Monday.  Walking distance, reasonably priced, gluten-free?  No question.  Plus, Liberty had been asking over a week to go to a restaurant.  While Bill and Donna's food looked and I was told their meals were delicious, they went for glutenous options.  So this is all about the toddler and myself.

Bad news first: despite the incredible lists of bread that The Friendly Toast offers, they no longer have any that is gluten-free.  Fine, I was in the mood for and wanted to try some of their all-day breakfasts anyway.  Additionally, the pumpkin pancakes I had heard so much about were not safe for us to eat.  Not so fine.  Being a big fan of pumpkin anything, I had very much wanted to try those and I'm still unclear why only the batter for those pancakes requires wheat.  Still, there was a lot of choice for Liberty and I.  Regular pancakes with only a dollar surcharge for being gluten-free sounded good as did several of the egg dishes about which we were told there would be a discount for not being able to eat the toast that normally comes with it as a side.  See, I ended with good news; I know of nowhere else that takes money off a check for not being able to eat the toast especially when the hash browns are also gluten-free.

Mason, our very friendly (natch) & helpful server, continued to explain using his hands -- as I later discovered, with near-pinpoint accuracy -- the size of the establishment's very large servings.  A single pancake would take up the size of a standard dinner dish up to the edges and although their egg dishes were supposed to be three eggs they usually ended up being more like four to five.  I had a tough time choosing between the Flying Fish Scramble of eggs with smoked salmon, fresh dill and cheddar versus the New Hampshire's Finest containing a scramble with locally-made goat cheese, asparagus, scallions and bacon.  Mason recommended I select the latter.

We sat right there.

Liberty had fallen asleep in the comfortable booth Mason had let us choose, giving me a chance to really look around the place and check out the ambiance.  The Friendly Toast really has made a gentrified space in East Cambridge look like a 1950s-style diner, full of interesting and adorable kitsch covering almost every inch of the walls and the display shelves.  There is music blaring from four speakers in the ceiling and it's loud enough to hear well, but not too loud to be unable to hear dining companions.  It feels right in there.  Nice outdoor patio, too.

By the time my kid awoke, Mason had placed a take-home plastic cup where she was sitting filled with water.  Not many places will give a child-friendly cup for free without ordering a kids' meal; when they don't have a kids' meal like this restaurant, they do not normally have that kind of cup.  It took a little bit of the sting out from not having been able to order a drink myself.  I wanted to try a strawberry, blueberry, pineapple and kiwi smoothie being very picky about my smoothie ingredients and not usually having so many options I liked -- but there was no way I was going to pay that much for it.  In fact, everyone at the table stuck with water due to the overly high prices of the drinks.

The "panacake", according to Liberty.

There wasn't too long a wait until our food arrived, perhaps fifteen minutes at most.  I've heard the wait can be extremely long during weekday rushes and throughout the weekend, but there was almost no one else there at 2pm on a Monday.  Mason brought out the gluten-free food separate from the gluten-filled food, which was a nice touch particularly as he brought ours first ensuring Liberty's distraction from Bill and Donna's sandwiches.  Liberty only had eyes for the huge "panacake" and asked me to use both pats of butter on it.

The pancake, according to me.

I don't know what mixture of batter they use for the plain gf pancakes, but it beats the pants off of any of the mixes we've used at home.  It hugged the line between too fluffy and not fluffy enough; not too cakey and not too flat.  Delicious!  Its size meant I was able to put the real maple syrup onto one side of the pancake without risking it touching Liberty's side.  Definitely a good thing, since my little girl very quickly ate over 2/5ths of it going "nomnomnom", "mmmm" and "yummy" the entire time.  And it really was that fantastic.  Like homemade, but better.  I think we'd have a difficult time finding such perfection in a gluten-free pancake elsewhere.

Liberty got her fill on the pancake so the New Hampshire's Finest was all mine.  The four to five eggs were properly scrambled and the mix of flavors were evenly balanced.  An exceptional amount of partially-melted goat cheese, the most delectable and fresh as if it had just been made that I have ever tasted, seemed rolled into the eggs in ropes and chunks.  The thick pieces of clearly fresh asparagus and the light smattering of equally fresh scallions complemented each other instead of drowning out their distinct flavors.  A large amount of superbly crispy-but-not-burnt bacon topped off the entree to make it a sublime taste explosion of goodness in my mouth.

LOVE.

The hash browns on the side comprised potatoes cut variously, big circular slices and little slivers, mixed with cheese (tasted like cheddar) and onions.  Like everything else, the portion was sizable.  They were heavily spiced to the point of actually being spicy; my only quibble about them would be wanting to ask for less spice next time, but I still ate them all.  How often do I get to eat gourmet-tasting and gf hash browns in my brunch?

Cute menu.

Donna left early and Liberty took Bill outside to run around when she was done (yes, I wrote that correctly) giving me the rare opportunity as a parent to slowly enjoy the rest of my meal.  As I finished the remaining part of the pancake and my egg dish, I took in more of my surroundings.  This is very much a hipster place, both frequented and staffed by hipsters, yet somehow it maintains a sense of non-pretentiousness.  Honestly, I've never been aware of a nicer group of hipsters than the ones who work here.  Everyone smiled at me genuinely, showing no judgement over my distinctly average business casual maternity clothing of a pink sweater set and white slacks in their all-black-clothing setting.  I'd have put that down to my visible facial piercings except Bill was in a suit and they treated him the same way.  When I complemented the music at one point, Mason told me the name of the band and where they hailed from, stopping at my table long enough to have a discussion about them.  Thanks for everything, Mason!

I would -- and will -- go back.  Next time I'll bring my own mother along and we'll do it all gluten-free.  Watch this space!

The Friendly Toast can be liked on Facebook and followed at both locations or just the Cambridge one.