There is a particular kind of restlessness that builds up in a young man who grew up on Long Island in the late 1980s and early 1990s — a tension between the comfort of the familiar and the magnetic pull of somewhere, anywhere, else. Terence Scarlatos felt that pull acutely. After graduating from a local high school, he did something that most of his peers did not: he left. Not for college, not for a corporate track, but for the open road itself. Over the course of nearly a decade, Scarlatos drifted through the American West, hitchhiking through New Mexico, washing dishes in small-town diners, picking up work wherever he could, and spending long hours in the independent coffeehouses that dotted the West Coast landscape from Seattle to Santa Fe. It was inside one of those coffeehouses — a community gathering spot outside of Santa Fe, where the screen door slammed with every coming and going and a hazelnut latte changed his understanding of what a café could be — that the seed for Toast was planted. More than two decades later, that seed has grown into one of Long Island’s most beloved and enduring restaurant brands, a brunch empire that now stretches across six locations and shows no signs of slowing down.
The Origin Story: From a Deli to a Cultural Institution
On his twenty-ninth birthday in April 2002, Terence Scarlatos opened the doors of Toast Breakfast Lunch Café in an old deli at 242 East Main Street in downtown Port Jefferson Village. The concept was deceptively simple: bring the West Coast coffeehouse experience — the art, the music, the lingering — to a North Shore harbor town that had never seen anything quite like it. From the beginning, Scarlatos understood that coffee alone would not pay the rent. Toast launched with a full breakfast and lunch menu featuring omelets, breakfast burritos, pancakes, French toast, salads, sandwiches, and wraps alongside the espresso drinks. His wife Jennifer and his mother and brother pitched in alongside a handful of employees. The response was immediate and overwhelming (Greater Long Island, 2025). Lines formed on weekends. The mismatched coffee cups became a signature. The rotating art on the walls — eventually formalized as the FRESH Art Gallery — gave the place a pulse that no franchise could replicate. The New York Times took notice. Zagat awarded the food a 23 rating. What Scarlatos had created, without fully realizing it at the time, was the prototype for what would become the now-ubiquitous “hip brunch spot” — years before the concept saturated Instagram feeds across the country.
The Fight to Survive and the Expansion That Followed
Success, however, did not come without friction. Port Jefferson Village code had zoned the original location as a retail food establishment, meaning Toast was technically not permitted to offer table service. The village pushed back, arguing that Toast was operating as a restaurant, not a coffee shop. The matter went to court. Scarlatos fought to keep his doors open — and prevailed (Greater Long Island, 2025). That legal battle is worth noting not just as a footnote, but as evidence of something that defines the entire Toast story: this was never a concept backed by investors or corporate strategists. This was a man who funded his own expansion when banks refused to lend during the credit crunch, who slept on the floor of his restaurant during build-outs, and who earned every square foot of the empire he has since constructed. By 2008, Toast had expanded into the adjacent space in Port Jefferson. Word of the restaurant’s success eventually reached Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri, who personally encouraged Scarlatos to consider opening a second location in the revitalizing Patchogue Village. From there, additional Toasts followed in Bay Shore and Long Beach. In August 2022, the original Port Jefferson Village location was relocated to a significantly larger space at 650 Route 112 in Port Jefferson Station — the current flagship — transformed into a stunning farmhouse-themed breakfast and lunch destination with exposed wood beams, vintage signage, half-windmills, and steel doors that Scarlatos described as channeling “the Smokey Mountains” (TBR News Media, 2022).
The Menu: Where Creativity Meets Organic Craft
To understand why Toast draws the devotion it does, one must understand the menu. This is not a place that rests on the laurels of a decent eggs Benedict and calls it a morning. The kitchen operates as a kind of rolling laboratory, with Scarlatos involving his entire culinary team — including chef Scott Andriani, his longtime collaborator — in developing monthly specials that range from the playful to the genuinely inventive. Consider the espresso-rubbed flat iron steak served with crispy onions, a homemade biscuit, and a side of home fries. Or the Chorizo Shrimp Benedict — organic poached eggs with crumbled chorizo and sautéed Cajun shrimp in an étouffée-style sauce over cheddar grits. The red velvet crepe batter stuffed with fresh berries, cocoa, and cream cheese filling. The Miss Lucy’s Tortilla Skillet, a Creole-style scramble that has developed its own cult following. Organic eggs are standard. Vegan options are extensive and thoughtful — not afterthoughts, but fully developed dishes like the Mt. Shasta Skillet with vegan eggs, roasted zucchini, spinach, mushroom, and sundried tomato. The coffee program has evolved to match the food, with flights that allow guests to sample multiple specialty preparations in a single sitting, from peanut butter mochas to crème caramel lattes. The Port Jeff Station location also features a full cocktail bar, including the now-legendary ALB Bloody Mary — built with housemade mix, Old Bay rim, Slap Ya Mama hot sauce, and garnished with andouille sausage, bacon, tomato, and celery.
Art, Music, and the Soul of the Third Place
What separated Toast from every other breakfast spot on Long Island from the very beginning was its dual identity as a gallery and gathering place. The FRESH Art Gallery, housed within the original Port Jefferson location, rotated solo exhibitions monthly, featuring emerging and established Long Island artists — painters like Damon Tommolino, whose deconstructionist canvases drew crowds at opening night receptions, and Anjipan (Angela Newman), whose vibrant paper-cut series and canvas works became fixtures of the Toast aesthetic over multiple residencies between 2015 and 2019 (Patch, 2011). Artists were exhibited at no commission, a rarity in the gallery world and a gesture that cemented Toast’s reputation as a genuine patron of the local creative community. The concept extended beyond visual art. Open mic nights, curated playlists, and the kind of eclectic, “funky-but-elegant” atmosphere that Yelp reviewers have struggled to categorize for over twenty years — these elements were not decorative. They were foundational. In the sociological framework of Ray Oldenburg’s concept of “The Third Place” — the communal gathering spot that is neither home nor work — Toast has functioned as one of the North Shore’s most important social anchors for more than two decades. As someone who has spent twenty-five years running The Heritage Diner in Mount Sinai, I recognize this quality intimately. The restaurants that endure are never just about the food. They are about the threshold you cross when you walk through the door — the unspoken contract between proprietor and patron that says: you belong here.
The Growing Empire: From Revival to The Study
Scarlatos has demonstrated a rare talent among restaurateurs: the ability to expand without diluting the original vision. When he relocated the flagship to Route 112 in 2022, he did not simply abandon the original 242 East Main Street space. Instead, he partnered with chef Scott Andriani — whom he had met years earlier at a men’s night gathering in Rocky Point, where Andriani brought sixteen carefully prepared sauces to complement bear meat burgers and spit-roasted pig — to open Revival by Toast, an upscale evening concept featuring farm-forward cuisine sourced almost entirely from Long Island and Tri-State purveyors, including Indian Neck Farm in Peconic (TBR News Media, 2023). Most recently, in late 2025, Scarlatos opened The Study by Toast in East Setauket — a smaller, more experimental concept that represents a full-circle return to the original coffeehouse vision. Counter service only. A working Steinway piano. A mini-bookshop. Toast’s first on-site coffee roasting operation. And a test kitchen that feeds new ideas to the entire Toast Coffee + Kitchen system. The brand now encompasses locations in Port Jefferson Station, Patchogue, Bay Shore, Long Beach, Ronkonkoma, and East Setauket, with over 160 employees and a social media following of 28,000 on Instagram alone. In the language of bespoke craftsmanship — a language I know well from the Marcellino NY workshop — what Scarlatos has built is the opposite of mass production. Each location has its own character, its own design story, its own relationship with its community. He has, in his own words, chosen to “Toastify” rather than franchise.
Community, Charity, and the Port Jefferson Connection
The Toast story is inseparable from the Port Jefferson community that nurtured it. Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich and NYS Assemblyman Steve Englebright attended the grand reopening at the Route 112 location in September 2022, a testament to the political and civic goodwill that the brand has cultivated over two decades. Toast has partnered with Harmony Café, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering communities through nutritious food and wellness education, for holiday initiatives including their “A Place at the Table” program (Long Island Advance, 2023). The Patchogue location has served as a gathering point for local arts organizations, including hosting after-parties for the Patchogue Arts Council’s annual arts festivals. In 2012, Toast was selected as the subject of a reality television pilot — “Toast Coffeehouse Confidential” — a project that, regardless of its broadcast fate, underscored the fact that the cast of characters who populate this restaurant on any given morning are inherently compelling (Patch, 2012). The semi-private Barn Room at the Port Jefferson Station location accommodates up to twenty-two guests for events ranging from bridal showers to business outings to bereavement gatherings — a reminder that restaurants, at their best, hold the full spectrum of human experience.
The Details: What You Need to Know
Address: 650 Route 112, Port Jefferson Station, NY 11776
Phone: (631) 331-6860
Email: portjefferson@toastcoffeehouse.com
Website: toastcoffeehouse.com
Instagram: @toastcoffeeandkitchen
Hours: Monday–Friday 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM | Saturday–Sunday 7:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Order Online: Toast Tab Direct Ordering (commission-free, supports the restaurant directly)
Delivery: Available via Uber Eats and DoorDash
Catering: Available via ezCater and directly through the restaurant
Private Events: Semi-private Barn Room seats up to 22 guests; full buyouts available for larger occasions. Inquire here
Loyalty Program: Available through the Toast Coffeehouse website
Other Locations: Patchogue | Bay Shore | Long Beach | Ronkonkoma | The Study by Toast (East Setauket)
Reviews: Ranked #1 of 34 restaurants in Port Jefferson Station on TripAdvisor (4.3/5, 316 reviews) | 4 stars on Yelp (866 reviews, 810 photos) | 4.6 stars on DoorDash (4,000+ reviews)
Parking: Available on-site
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible entrance, parking, restroom, and seating
Vibe: Farmhouse-rustic, artistic, trendy, casual, family-friendly
There is a moment in the life of every great restaurant when it stops being a business and becomes a place. Not a brand, not a concept, not a franchise opportunity — a place, in the deepest sense of the word. A place where a first date becomes a marriage becomes a family becomes a tradition of Sunday morning pancakes with the grandchildren. A place where a young artist hangs work on the wall for the first time and an old friend orders the same thing she has ordered every Saturday for fifteen years. Toast Coffee + Kitchen crossed that threshold a long time ago. What Terence and Jennifer Scarlatos have built — from a cramped deli in a harbor village to a six-location institution that defines Long Island brunch culture — is not merely a restaurant success story. It is a case study in what happens when restlessness meets craftsmanship, when a West Coast dream is filtered through North Shore grit, and when a man who once hitchhiked through the American desert decides to plant his flag and stay.
YouTube: Exploring Coffee Flights at Toast Coffee House in Long Island
Peter from The Heritage Diner — Mount Sinai, NY | heritagediner.com | marcellinony.com
