There is nothing like brunch — the opportunity to sleep in paired with a savory breakfast is the perfect (late) start to your day. While the brunch options on campus are nice, especially Morrison Dining’s mango sticky rice or North Star Dining Room’s pancakes with cherry sauce, the weekly rotations sometimes get boring for those with a more expansive taste palette.
Farm to Feast in the Ithaca Commons is an amazing place to go to if you are sick of the dining hall brunches, but still want to start your day with a mid-day brunch with friends. F2F is a local business that uses locally sourced ingredients to create innovative recipes. The ambrosial creations themselves are amazing, but F2F is truly unique because you know where every ingredient comes from. Because of this, the pricing tends to be more expensive than other brunch options (like the cafes on campus or Paris Baguette in the Commons), averaging at around $11 for their toasts.
This review will be centered around their toast options, although they do also serve more lunch-forward meals like salads, sandos (a type of Japanese sandwich) and ramen. Their toasts are unlike any other toast experience you can have as they are created with homemade shokupan, a Japanese milk bread. This sweet and silky bread pairs nicely with any topping option, but especially complements the savory Ginger Maple Sausage toast and the Honey Gochujang Bacon toast as it creates an umami of flavors. There is also a gluten-free bread option that is locally-sourced and maintains the amazing umami that the shokupan creates.
Now for a deep dive into each of their toasts:
Ginger Maple Sausage Toast: 5/5
Ingredients: Ginger-Maple sausage, Farm to Feast home-made mayonnaise, chili oil, egg
Hands down one of the best foods I have ever consumed. The glazed sausage swiftly combines sweetness, saltiness and a little hint of spice together in one bite, creating a gustatory explosion. This sausage gets marinated with the runny yolk, transforming the typical sausage and egg breakfast into something revolutionary. The chili-oil is the bow on top, tying all of the flavors together and creating a dance of flavors from sweet to savory, to salty to spicy. This dish is good for someone who values savory dishes — for someone who enjoys the North Star Dining Hall eggs and sausage, but needs something a bit more sophisticated.
Honey Gochujang Bacon Toast: 4.5/5
Ingredients: Cream cheese, honey-gochujang bacon, pickled red onion, scallions, egg
This toast is extremely similar to the Ginger Maple Sausage Toast, but it is a little spicier. All the flavors pair extremely nicely together. The pickled red onions add a little bit of texture and acidity to the cream cheese. The honey-gochujang bacon is what makes this toast incredible. The combination of the sweet honey with the already unique umami of the gochujang make this toast incredibly unique. Just the bacon alone is wonderful, but the interesting combination of cream cheese and pickled red onions steps it up.
Miso Avocado Toast: 4/5
Ingredients: Sesame-smashed avocado, Farm to Feast home-made mayonnaise, scallions, furikake
If avocado toast is your thing, then this Miso Avocado Toast is an amazing way to expand your palette and elevate your normal avocado toast experience. The miso pairs well with the avocado, creating a mixture of creamy, fresh flavors. However, I find that it is missing something — I am in need of something more from this toast. The lightness of the miso spread, avocado and toast are insufficient if you are looking for a stuffing meal. Because of this, I recommend ordering an egg to go with it to add some extra heartiness and protein. It would also help to add a meat option like bacon or sausage.
Black Sesame Jelly Toast: 4/5
Ingredients: Black sesame spread, cream cheese
The cream cheese mixes surprisingly well with the black sesame jelly. The jelly is grainy and a little sweet (although not as sweet as Smucker’s strawberry jelly), while the cream cheese is sour and smooth. The checkerboard pattern of the different toppings makes each bite fairly balanced between its sweetness and sourness, which is ideal for a toast containing two contrasting flavors. The checkered pattern also allows you to eat the cream cheese and jelly separately, so you are not forced to mix the flavors if you end up not liking them together. Out of all the toast options, this is definitely the most different. Similarly to the Miso Avocado toast, I am also left feeling a little dissatisfied — like I need to order something else to get full. I recommend ordering an iced vanilla ube matcha and a pandan muffin to help fill you up.
Okonomiyaki Toast: 4/5
Ingredients: Egg and cabbage omelet, greens, Farm to feast home-made mayonnaise, farm to feast home-made BBQ sauce, scallions
This toast is extremely good, even as someone who does not love cabbage. The F2F house-made mayo, cabbage and scallions create a very earthy taste, while the BBQ sauce adds a bit of tang. The runny yolk of the egg adds to the texture of the dish. This toast is one of the more bland options, but it is still extremely scrumptious nonetheless.
Specials!
If you easily get bored of flavors and constantly like to explore new ones, F2F features weekly specials like the kimchi brisket sandwich, banana foster’s bread pudding and black sesame waffles to name a few. These specials are a great way to try new flavors and explore new dishes.
While F2F is a little expensive, it will leave you with a postprandial satisfaction that cannot be matched by competing brunch options. The toasts are unique, as the F2F owners aim to create distinct flavor profiles with each dish, and the overall vibe of the restaurant is welcoming. F2F is also a great place to sit and do school work in. It is worth the bus ride to the Commons.
Alisia Wucetich is a freshman in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. She can be reached at aew254@cornell.edu.
