English Summer Cucumber Goat Cheese Toast

Great for breakfast, lunch, a snack, or an early dinner!
Ari Weinzweig, CEO & Co-Founder of Zingerman’s 

english summer cucumber toast

One of the great, still almost secret culinary treats of the ZCoB, I’d say, is the toast at the Coffee Company out on Zingerman’s Southside. The Coffee Company toasts bring together a lot of the best of what we do into one significant, but not overly large, meal. Artisan bread from the Bakehouse; cheeses from the Creamery; spices from Épices de Cru; Irish butter; extra virgin olive oil… really, what could be bad?!

One of my favorites of the eight different offerings on the Coffee Company’s toast menu is the English Summer. Toasted Sicilian Sesame Semolina bread, drizzled with olive oil, spread while still warm with a nice bit of the Creamery’s handmade artisan cream cheese, topped off with some of the freshly ground 5-Star Pepper blend, a little bit of sea salt, and a final drizzle of olive oil. It’s a wonderful combination of contrasts; light but still substantial; savory but with a subtle underlying hint of sweetness from the cream cheese and the sesame seeds on the bread. Vegetables, bread, and protein together on one fine toast set! All the way around, it’s a great way to eat.

It’s been about 18 months since we started doing toast and I guess the secret must be starting to get out because when I was there yesterday for a meeting, there were probably a dozen folks eating one of the very tasty toast combos. If you want to make a more complete meal of it, grab a salad from the Bakeshop or the Cream Top Shop. Sit inside or out, take a deep breath to get grounded. Appreciate the visual loveliness of the toast, then take a bite. Enjoy!

Excerpt from Ari’s weekly Top 5 E-Newsletter. To stay in-the-know about things that Ari is excited about in the Zingerman’s family, sign up here