Photo by Andrew Fabian.

Sometime in the last couple of years, avocado toast became a symbol for everything hipster. Like beards, man-buns, music festivals and one’s ability to create dank memes, avocado toast came to be associated with the vacuity of fleeting trends, epitomizing the current fad for taking old forms (toast) and making them quirky. Still, when removed from the unseemly trappings of its cultural context, avocado toast makes for a darn good breakfast. And at Buttermilk Handcrafted Food, avocado toast has achieved its final form to become a healthy, tasty staple. 

Known for their wood-burning oven-baked biscuits, Buttermilk is no slouch when it comes to all things baked. For their avocado toast, they bake a fluffy, flaky loaf of brioche to pillowy perfection, then use a thick slice of the loaf to form the base of the dish. Smashed avocado is then carefully formed into a large mound on the slice, with radicchio slivers, supremed orange chunks and honey roasted peanuts set into the avocado. Finally, a dab of Red Clay hot sauce and cilantro top it off. This dish has everything a well-rounded mouth could ask for. The avocado makes it creamy and rich, the brioche toast gives it a hint of char, the peanuts provide some crunch, the orange slices add some sugar and moisture, the cilantro adds a touch of the exotic and the hot sauce activates the tongue and lips ever so slightly. But the most impressive aspect of the whole affair is that in spite of the dish’s precarious stacking of ingredients, it all seems to stay together rather well, allowing even less coordinated diners the prestige of getting all of the textures in each bite.

Sorry, hipsters, but avocado toast belongs to everyone now. I hear people are putting strawberry slices on pizza now, though, so you might want to check that out.

Photo by Andrew Fabian.

Buttermilk Handcrafted Food, 5520 Palmer Blvd., Sarasota, 941-487-8949.