By Matt Wiley
If you live in New Tampa and you’re a fan of fine wines and great food, you probably already know all about Toast Wine & Café in the Oak Ramble Plaza on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (just south of Tampa Palms) and my buddy (and Toast co-owner) Hector Gonzalez, the most knowledgeable wine guy in the New Tampa area.
Hector can not only tell you which wines to pair with which foods, he says his specialty is getting you the best possible wine values for your money.
“If you’re usually in that $20-$50 range when you buy wine,” says Hector, “I can keep you in that price range but the wines I pick might be as good as those you’d buy in the $50-$100 range at a boutique wine store someplace else.”
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But, he’s so much more than just a “wine guy.” Over the past couple of years, Hector says he has had a lot of success with wine pairing dinners at Toast and, at least at first, he would bring in top chefs from area restaurants and catering companies to prepare the menus for those amazing dinners.
“I have always been a foodie myself,” he says. “I’ve been working with and observing great chefs since I was 18, so my love of wine actually grew out of my love for great food. I not only watch the Food Network and other TV cooking shows to see what the trends are, I have looked at every wine dinner we’ve done with an outside provider — I always did a lot of the food prep work for those — as an opportunity for me to learn what our customers love and what they don’t in terms of what they like to eat. Having learned with and from those great chefs, I also learned that I could do just as good a job as those caterers.”
And, his most recent sold-out wine dinner, featuring an outstanding menu paired with the wines of the popular Halter Ranch Vineyard in Paso Robles, CA (which was named the #1 Wine Region of 2013 by Wine Spectator magazine) certainly showed off Hector’s culinary skills, as well as his ability to perfectly pair his own eclectic cuisine with Halter Ranch’s highly rated white and red wines.
As we went to press with this issue, Hector was refining the menu he created for Toast’s South Tampa location (at 3501 S. Manhattan Ave.) to add a number of exciting new menu items to the BBD location’s existing menu.
“There’s a lot of great new sandwiches, including vegetarian items, plus new flatbreads, tapas (Note-I’m crazy for the mini caprese, the antipasto pairing and smoked salmon selections) and more,” he says. “The reaction from our customers, at least so far, has been really great. And, I’ll continue to add new dinner entrées, too.”
When assistant editor/photographer Matt Wiley and I visited Toast to take pics of the new food items, we agreed that our favorite of the new selections was Hector’s amazing black pepper encrusted, pan roasted filet mignon sandwich, served with some of the tastiest bacon you’ll find anywhere, melted cheddar and a great spicy mustard, all on a soft French brioche bun.
Although I couldn’t sample it, another popular new item in our office is Toast’s new jumbo shrimp flatbread (with pesto, cheese and sauce), as is the new cucumber veggie sandwich (on incredible artisan pumpernickel or whole wheat everything bread) and the Toast Signature Club, which replaces the third piece of bread in most club sandwiches with even more ham, turkey, crisp bacon and melted Swiss on that artisan whole wheat or white bread.
There’s also a great Toast signature marinated portobello mushroom “burger,” a variety of artisanal cheese platters, quesadillas, and even tasty “deconstructed” (where you pick the ingredients) and other fresh salads, all with homemade dressings.
“We also specialize in corporate Happy Hour events and you can even reserve the entire place here for parties of up to 50 people (Sun.-Tues. only) with no room charge (you just pay for your food and beverage),” says Hector. “Yes, catering is a specialty, too.”
Feel like a great cup of coffee? Hector uses a private roaster who provides estate varieties from Guatemala, Costa Rica and other exotic locales, and of course, cappuccinos, espressos and lattes also are available.
Hector also wants you to know that Toast also serves some of the best brunch in our area — once each month on a Sunday (the next one will be in early-mid-September; call Toast for details). For brunch, you can enjoy Hector’s decadent Belgian waffles with everything from your basic maple syrup to granola, bananas, roasted pecans, Nutella spread, fresh berries and more. You can even create your own omelet or egg sandwich.
And of course, Toast offers great daily specials, like half-priced bottles of wine on Mondays (try the tasty new Cherry Tart Single-Vineyard Blend Pinot Noir by Cherry Pie Vineyards; I’m not the biggest pinot fan, but this one is especially elegant); BOGO (Buy One, Get One Free) Tapas on Tuesdays; a special Select Bottle Promotion on Wednesdays (usually a wine valued at $25-$30 or more for just $15); “Flight Night” Thursdays, with three featured beer samples for $6 and three featured wine samples for $10; and Friday is a night for your “bucket list,” with Buckets O’Bubbles (sparkling wine) for $25 and Buckets O’ Domestic Beers (Matt, our resident beer afficionado, is partial to the Fat Tire Amber Ale at Toast) for $12.
And, Hector wants to stress that there is no smoking allowed inside Toast! Yes, he still sells highly rated Arturo Fuente and other fine cigars inside, and yes, he has outside seating for smokers, but the former cigar lounge inside is gone.
Call Toast Wine & Café (14921 BBD) at 632-3105. Or, visit ToastWineandCafe.com or search “ToastWine” and like the page on Facebook.com for regular updates.
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