Toast for sale! Grab a bite for $1.875 million.
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: This news brief omitted the author’s byline. The brief was written by Anne Cai, a Tech associate news editor.
Toast for sale! Grab a bite for $1.875 million.
“I really like the human-like statue with a hamburger head and a sombrero.”
That’s Jon Schneider ’13’s favorite part of going to the Friendly Toast. The Kendall Square diner, opened in 2009, is known for more than its creative breakfast menu. It and its older sister restaurant in Portsmouth, N.H. are both elaborately decked out in hipster décor. And as of a week ago, the two Toasts are up for sale together for $1.875 million.
“My husband Robert and I are craving change. Friendly Toast has been our whole lives for 18 years now, and we need a new challenge,” said Melissa Jasper, co-owner of Friendly Toast, of their decision to sell the two diners in a package deal.
The $1.875 million is just for the business and not the real estate. Jasper told Seacoast Online — which first reported the listing — that the projected income for the Toasts combined this year is “in excess of $4 million,” while Bean Group lists the diners as “in excess of $5,000,000 in two locations.”
Many MIT students consider the quirky Friendly Toast a part of their lives and love it for its food, location, and style.
“I hope that if the Friendly Toast switches hands, the new owners keep it just how it is,” said Joshua H. Alman ’14, who frequents the diner. “The décor and style of the restaurant, together with the food itself, make for a great and unique dining experience.”
“It’s great for midnight breakfast excursions,” added Taylor Han ’14. “It’s like an IHOP substitute, but closer and better.”
On weekends, the Kendall Square diner is often filled to its 150-person capacity. It is no surprise, then, that the Friendly Toast was named the 2010 fourth Best Breakfast in America by Good Morning America.
If the Toasts sell, the owners intend to move to Detroit and possibly open another restaurant, attributing their fascination with the city to artists moving into the area and the irresistibly cheap Art Deco real estate.
However, “nothing is certain yet,” wrote Jasper in an email to The Tech. The past two years have been financially difficult for the Friendly Toasts, and they’re not sure how likely the Toasts are to be sold in the current economy.