Westport eatery offers fresh take on sandwiches
WESTPORT’S MANNA TOAST OFFERS FRESH TAKE ON OPEN- FACED SANDWICHES “PLANT- BASED COOKING IS HOW I COOK. I LIKE TO KEEP THINGS HEALTHY. I DON’T LIKE MANIPULATE FOOD TOO MUCH.”
Stacy Bass has noticed that people don’t just say that they like Manna Toast — the Westport café she opened with chef Molly Healey and sister- in- law Yvette Waldman in the midst of the pandemic.
“They say ‘ I’m obsessed,’ ” says Bass, 53, of Westport.
That was unexpected, she says, considering not only that Manna Toast’s opening took place during a notably tough time for restaurants, but also that it offers mostly vegetarian, rustic open- faced sandwiches, made with locally sourced ingredients. Its offerings include both the expected, such as a meatless burger, and suprising items, like its carrot lox, a vegetarian take on lox and bagels in which shaved carrots stand in for smoked salmon.
The latter is one of Bass’ favorites. “It really does taste like smoked salmon,” she says.
The restaurant’s concept came from Healey, 31, of Bridgeport, who previously held a variety of cooking jobs, including as Bass’ personal chef. When Bass, Waldman and their husbands came to Healey asking if she had an idea for a restaurant, she knew she wanted it to be healthy, and focused on fresh vegetables.
“Plant- based cooking is how I cook,” she says. “I like to keep things healthy. I don’t like manipulate food too much.”
Healey also wanted the restaurant to be somewhat casual — high- end food in a relaxed environment.
The more Healey thought about it, the more toast seemed like a good vehicle for fresh, healthy toppings. Healey says open- faced sandwich shops are popular elsewhere in the world, particularly in Scandinavian countries, but aren’t a widespread phenomenon in the United States.
“I think people are getting sick of deli culture — the regular old sandwich with all the cold cuts on it,” Healey says. “Everybody has a taco shop, or a sandwich shop or a salad bar. We’re trying to do something different.”
Most of the restaurant’s sandwiches take sourdough bread sourced from Wave Hill Breads in Norwalk as their base. Most of the other ingredients are procured from area farms.
“We try to keep it as local as we can,” Healey says. “If it’s not local, we get the best possible ingredient we can get.”
However, diners looking for a certain healthy dining staple will be disappointed, Healey says. “There are no avocados, because avocados have to travel too far,” meaning they aren’t environmentally sustainable, she says. That means avocado toast is out.
But Bass says that hasn’t seemed to matter much to diners, who have helped the restaurant to thrive at a time when much of the industry is suffering. Manna Toast opened in May, as takeout and delivery only, which Bass says was tricky, but had its benefits.
“That was a little cart before the horse, because people didn’t know the food yet,” she says.
“But, in some ways, that’s appealing because people were kind of getting tired of the same old thing.”
By the time the actual sit- down café opened in July, Bass says, people were familiar with Manna and already had their favorites. Healey says one advantage the restaurant has is that, unlike existing restaurants that had to reconfigure themselves to be pandemic friendly — for instance, by adding outdoor seating and socially distanced tables — Manna was able to incorporate these features from the beginning.
“We’ve adapted to a whole new style of restaurant culture,” Healey says. “We didn’t have to restructure. We just opened like that.”
The combination of innovative food, fresh ingredients and a comfortable atomosphere has really struck a chord with people, Bass says. She says people tell her they come to Manna multiple times a day for different meals.
“People are thanking us for opening,” Bass says. “It feels like we had filled a niche.”
“PLANT- BASED COOKING IS HOW I COOK. I LIKE TO KEEP THINGS HEALTHY. I DON’T LIKE MANIPULATE FOOD TOO MUCH.”
— MOLLY HEALEY