Inside Toast, Opening Today in Rockridge

Grid View

• The interior was designed by the owners with advice from interior designer George Dolese
• Benches are reclaimed from Richmond High School bleachers.
• Tables were made from a Redwood in Kristin's backyard.

Officially opening today at 3 p.m. is a new wine bar and small plates restaurant on College Ave. called Toast—not to be confused with Toast in Novato and all of those San Francisco Toast Eateries. The owners of this particular Toast are Heather Sittig and Kristen Policy, two industry first timers who have been ramping up monetary and moral community support for over a year now. The pairs' past experiences meld well. Sittig founded and operated a real estate company called Maison Nouveau that just merged with McGuire Real Estate. And Policy—who designed the logo and website for Toast—is a food photographer whose work has appeared in numerous places, including Sustainable Sushi. These two raised $15,000 for the project through one of those Kickstarter fundraiser things.

Coming off of a one week, soft-launch, complete with investor dinners and several friends and family test runs, now the general public can sample the joint's 30 international wines by-the-glass and local, sustainable small plates by Peter Jackson of Canvas Underground. Here's the opening menu. Know also there are two red wines on-tap are coming soon from Skylark and Andrew Lane wineries. Toast can be found on Twitter, Facebook and, in real life, at 5900 College Ave. Drop early reports in the comments and/or the tip jar at your leisure.