Travel and food rub shoulders in the Toast to Coast experience

Located on the former Breda site in Milan’s extensively redeveloped Bicocca industrial area, the Toast to Coast restaurant is inspired by the iconic coast-to-coast road trip across the United States. This highly original project by Andrea Langhi Design brings together a unique blend of ingredients in an eclectic location that evokes the experience of a journey. While the name Toast to Coast specifically references the classic road trip across the North American continent, it also reflects the main culinary speciality of the location, which serves toasted sandwiches influenced by the flavour of faraway locales. Each of the various varieties – Clubsandwich, Toast, Roll and Pizza Toast – corresponds to a different speciality that might be discovered during a journey, almost as if “toasted sandwiches were able to absorb all the influences in terms of style and taste that they encounter along the route”, explains architect Andrea Langhi. The world of “tasty toast” is recreated in the two-level restaurant, divided into a ground floor and mezzanine area where customers are served and the service areas located below. The New York industrial atmosphere is brought to life by the exposed brick walls and worn plaster, by the iron columns and visible pipework and by the vintage suspension lamps. The heterogeneity of the materials is reflected in that of the furnishings, a series of “memorabilia collected during various trips around the world and then assembled with different functions”, explains the architect. With the same playful and idiosyncratic character that pervades the restaurant as a whole, the surface coverings have been chosen with different shapes and decorations but with a retro flavour reminiscent of reclaimed decking. For the functional area in front of the old America-style bar counter, 23 square metres of Havana porcelain tiles from Cir Manifatture Ceramiche have been laid in the 20×20 cm size and in the colour Floridita blue, a clear reference to vintage Cuban atmospheres. The rest of the floor space (140 m2) is clad with 18×118 cm White coloured planks from Serenissima’s Tahoe collection that recreate the look of reclaimed wooden floorboards but with all the functional characteristics of porcelain. The greatest strength of the project is the way the various elements are integrated into a coherent whole. “Customers set off on a voyage of discovery, from the initial “wow” factor through to a full immersion that allows them to gradually explore all the details,” explains the architect. In this project, the style of the restaurant was influenced by the post-industrial location, the former Breda area with its distinctive New York look. “Walking along the streets you don’t feel like you’re in Milan at all, so we tried to channel this international feel in the Toast to Coast,” concludes Andrea Langhi.