Best thing since sliced bread? Gourmet toast shop to open in Lehigh Valley

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Brianna Keefe, a Lehigh Valley native, in 2018 came up with the idea for Toastique — a gourmet toast and juice bar.

In the five years since, 15 locations of the eatery have popped up all over the country, from Florida to Colorado to Utah.

Now, in a story that has come full circle, on March 11 a franchise will open at 21 E. 3rd St, Bethlehem.

It will be run by Jessica Morrisey a 2012 graduate of Moravian Academy who has a masters of business administration degree from Lehigh University.

Morrisey said she was on vacation with her mom at the Jersey Shore in summer 2021 when they walked into the first Toastique franchise location.

And they fell in love.

She said they especially liked that the food was freshly made and locally sourced.

“We just thought it would do well and we're from here,” said Morrisey. “It was so cool to find out that the founder of the brand also is.”

Toast, and juices, bowls and berries

Morrisey said the most popular toasts on the menu are the Avocado Smash, which has avocado, marinated tomatoes, watermelon radish and micro greens with seasoning on multigrain toast, and the Tomato Burrata, with berbed ricotta, tomato, buratta cheese, and seasoning on Rustico toast.

But she said her favorite is the PB crunch, which is a little sweeter. It has honey roasted peanut butter, bananas, strawberries, granola, chia seeds, honey and mint on raisin walnut toast.

In total, the restaurant offers eight gourmet toast options, eight bowls, seven juices and seven smoothies.

On the company's website, Tostique says its Cold-Pressed juices "are designed to completely untangle the fibers that hold the cells of fruits and vegetables," and the "process allows the ingredients to sustain their nutritional value and yield up to 30% more juice than a standard."

The Acai Bowls use Acai berries, which the website says are much like their fruit counterpart, the grape.

"They’re about ¾ seed and ¼ the delicious flesh packed with extreme amounts of nutrients for your body," it says. "Our bowl design allows you to enjoy the fruit and acai mixture at the top and enjoy that mixture with granola and remaining fruit at the bottom."

Morrisey also said the restaurant can customize anything on the menu.

“We can offer vegan, we can offer gluten-free options,” Morrisey said. They also don’t mind making off-menu smoothies, she said.

“We're happy to make that for them, as long as we have the ingredients on hand,” she said.

Close to the dream

The venture is Morrisey’s first business, although she previously worked in operations for a family business.

Now, she said, she’s just excited her dream is so close to becoming a reality.

She said she discovered the brand in August 2021 and partnered with Keefe in December of that year. Construction started in March 2022.

Permitting and supply chain issues made the process drag on. Because the store is in Southside Bethlehem, the Historic Conservation Commission also had to approve any changes she wanted to make to the building.

Even putting in the electrical switches took six months, because of coronavirus pandemic-related disruptions.

“There have been delays, delays,” she said. “But we're finally in the home stretch.”