Toast Bakery Cafe Inc   

Don't pity poor Third Street in the Fairfax District. Sure, it shares the same name with the famous Santa Monica thoroughfare, and yes, it sits just a few blocks south of trendy Melrose. Happily, however, this mid-city stretch of shops and restaurants also boasts gems like Toast, a restaurant that gives any eatery on a more celebrated street a run for its money -- or, um, dough. As Toast's name suggests, bread is the floury heart of this European-inspired cafe. The requisite wicker basket brimming with baguettes graces the display case, natch, but the proof is in le pan. Though the eggs Florentine overflows with a velvety spinach concoction, the star of the show is the airy, slightly browned bed of bread that serves as the beautiful base. Other dishes on the breakfast and lunch-only menu rely equally on the staff of life, from the coffee cake-crusted French toast to the BMT, a contemporary take on the luncheonette classic that's stuffed with buffalo mozzarella and Roma tomatoes. Patrons gobble up bread and the yummy things accompanying the bread while seated in the warm, Saltillo-tiled interior done in toasty shades of ecru, chestnut and copper. On brilliant mornings diners in yoga togs sip tony teas and watch pedestrians toodle by while seated beneath Toast's outdoor umbrellas. It's almost like sitting at a small table in some village in France, except for that huge billboard for the new explosive action blockbuster across Third. -- Alysia Gray Painter