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Dozens of Ann Arbor community members stood in line on a chilly Saturday morning before 8 a.m. in anticipation of Toastique’s grand opening on 200 E. Washington St. Toastique is a national franchise that specializes in toast dishes and cold-pressed juices with more than 25 locations across the country; the Ann Arbor branch is the first to open in Michigan.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Candace Kovar, co-owner of Toastique Ann Arbor, said her parents’ experiences of operating a business sparked her initiative to do the same with her husband and business partner, Austin.
“I got to watch my mom run a pizzeria, and she kind of instilled that in me early on,” Kovar said. “(Austin and I) got into it because we knew we wanted to be business owners. We knew we wanted to be a part of something that was health conscious and that we could bring to the community.”
Kovar said she and Austin decided to open a Toastique storefront after seeing the franchise’s Instagram and their focus on freshly made food.
“So when I was looking up franchises, I would go to their social media and just see what their food looked like, how they represented themselves and how they got their customers,” Kovar said. “As soon as I saw the … marketing itself, (it) brought me in, just by looking at it, the vibrancy of it, reading about how it’s all fresh (and) it’s all homemade.”
Kovar said the relationship between healthy food and mental health was something she and her husband wanted to incorporate in their store.
“We knew that we wanted to own our own business, but also make sure that mental health was a part of that,” Kovar said. “The quality and the healthiness of the ingredients, the freshness to us correlated so strongly with mental health.”
Toastique offers 10 gourmet toast selections which include savory options such as the Avocado Smash Toast and sweeter items like the PB Crunch Toast. In addition to their toasts, Toastique sells cold-pressed juices such as Defender Juice –– which includes orange, carrot, apple, turmeric and lemon –– and Metabolize Juice which consists of cucumber, jalapeño, pineapple, apple and mint.
According to Kovar, Toastique uses local ingredients and creates multiple items in-house such as their cold-pressed juices and toast components like the avocado guacamole and chili oil. Kovar said Toastique focuses on providing the nutrition needed at different times of people’s daily routines.
“Then if we gear away from lunch and towards post-workout or pre-workout, we’ve got smoothies and açaí bowls, all prepared here in house,” Kovar said. “We also provide an array of grab-and-go items (like) spicy noodle salad (and) chia seeds … (We’re) just trying to cover everything from before work, your early breakfast, rolling into lunch, brunch after work, post workout, trying to hit all of those main points throughout the day.”
Toastique hosted a private event on Aug. 8 for social media influencers to try their food and become familiar with the establishment. Social Work student Aasia Laurencin was invited to the event to help promote Toastique prior to its grand opening.
Laurencin told The Daily that as a student athlete, she thinks Toastique will be popular among other athletes, particularly if the restaurant worked with existing athletic nutrition programs.
“Our nutritionist gives us money for us to go to certain restaurants to go eat but they have to have a deal with the restaurant beforehand for them to accept it and they pay them after depending on how much the athletes spent during that month,” Laurencin said. “I think it will help get the word out because athletes really love raw juice, açaí bowls and toast … It’s really something light and fresh I couldn’t get before.”
On the morning of the grand opening, Toastique gave the first 100 guests in line $50 of Toastique reward dollars if they made a purchase greater than $10. Stacy van Prooyen was visiting town from Tampa, Fla. and told The Daily in an interview that she was familiar with Toastique already and enjoys their food.
“I’m just thankful they have more healthy options in this area,” van Prooyen said. “All their stuff is fresh and it’s not pre-made. I love their smoothies. They have açaí bowls that are delicious. Their juices are really good.”
In an interview with The Daily at the opening, Music, Theatre & Dance rising senior Nicola Troschinetz said she heard about Toastique from a friend and was excited to see something new in the Ann Arbor food scene.
“I think it’s a great addition to Ann Arbor because I don’t think we have any place that specializes in (toast),” Troschinetz said. “So I think that’s why I’m really excited about it, (it’s) something new to add to the restaurant scene here.”
Kovar said she looks forward to interacting with the Ann Arbor community and hopes that she can be a role model for her daughter.
“Serving the community and being a part of the community is what I’m most excited for,” Kovar said. “And then I’m just excited for my family, for my daughter to watch me own my own business. I want her to watch her mom kick butt, owning her own business and running it and getting to be a part of a beautiful community.”
Summer Managing News Editor Eilene Koo can be reached at ekoo@umich.edu.
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