Café heads to Syracuse with new name and popular menu

SYRACUSE — After a short hiatus, an eatery once based in Cazenovia is reopening with a new name, but the same great food, in Syracuse. Mother-daughter duo Tonya Duffy and Kyle Gunnip closed The Toast, a business they started in 2015, on May 11 and are reopening as Sugar Grove Café and Bakery. A lot of factors are behind the move, Duffy tells The Central New York Business Journal. Originally, the restaurant and bakery did well in Cazenovia but began to struggle after experiencing staffing issues. As things began to slow down, Duffy started looking for a potential new location for the business. About two years of searching eventually led her to 401 S. Salina St. in Syracuse. “We walked in and just felt like it was the right location,” she recalls. Between plentiful foot traffic and nearby businesses, like the Landmark Theater and The Hayner Hoyt Corp., the street felt like a good fit for what Duffy and Gunnip wanted to do with a new location. When they first started the business, the menu was full of specialty toast items — thus the name The Toast. However, most of those items were already gone from the menu and, since Gunnip had learned how to make French pastries, the menu had really evolved and grown. “The Toast name kind of didn’t fit anymore,” Duffy says. So, she knew that with a new location, she wanted to rebrand with a new name. “Sugar Grove is one of my fondest memories as a child,” she says. It’s the name of the small town in West Virginia where Duffy grew up. The town inspired the name, and its general store — which she remembers from her childhood and that still exists today — serves as the inspiration for the café’s look. Sugar Grove Café and Bakery’s interior features reclaimed wood and metals, vintage furniture, and repurposed light fixtures. Along with décor, the 3,200-square-foot space that once housed the Vagabond clothing store needed a complete renovation to turn it into a restaurant. That included plumbing, electrical, adding a hood, and, of course, moving equipment from Cazenovia to Syracuse. “It’s been a long haul,” Duffy quips, but it’s also been a labor of love. Now, all the hard work is paying off as the café gets ready to open. At press time, Duffy was waiting on final inspections before setting an opening date. The business received a $190,000 loan from the Syracuse Economic Development Corporation to fund the project. “As far as the menu goes, all of our pastries will be the same but better because we’re always adding new things,” says Duffy. Sugar Grove Café and Bakery will be open seven days a week, serving breakfast and lunch. The café owners are keeping the huge sandwiches The Toast was known for, but adding a new twist to them, Duffy says. When you enter, diners will grab a paper bag that has a printed menu on it. A choose-your-own adventure of sorts, the bag allows diners to fully customize their sandwich from the bread to what’s inside it. After making their selections on the bag, they just turn it in at the register and wait for their food. “We’re going to have draft lattes,” Duffy says. Sugar Grove will also serve an array of baked goods and pastries including macarons, croissants, croissant doughnuts, muffins, cupcakes, cookies, Swiss cake rolls, and more. “We do what we call wagon wheels,” Duffy says. Named in honor of her father, the wagon wheel is a rolled, filled croissant that’s dipped in chocolate or other tasty confections on one end. The café will also have a small menu of cakes for order and will also offer catering options. Duffy is hoping to tap into the corporate market for pastry trays and the like. On Sundays, the café will feature a special brunch menu complete with mimosas. The majority of The Toast staff have made the move to Syracuse, and Duffy hired about six new employees as well. To get the word out about the new name and location, they have been regularly posting updates on both their Facebook and Instagram pages. Additionally, several TV news stations have expressed interest in covering the café once it opens, Duffy notes.