Toast, the new sandwich landmark
In Eaux-Vives, Julien Lindt’s toasted sandwiches arrived almost on tiptoe. Yet behind the apparent simplicity of Toastis a story of passion and intuition. At the age of 29, Julien Lindt, who “doesn’t come from a background at all”, decided to leave everything behind to open the address he’d had in mind for a long time.
Electric cars
An industrial designer by training, Julien was until recently working on the development of charging stations for electric cars. An entrepreneurial adventure launched in Lausanne, intense and formative, but which ended up distancing him from what he was really looking for. Cooking, however, was never far away. His father, a former trader who later became a restaurateur with L’Escalier, had undoubtedly passed on his taste for bold turns.
So, rather than a classic restaurant, Julien imagined a sandwich shop in his own image: minimalist, straightforward, well-sourced and without superfluity. Here, everything revolves around toasted sourdough bread. He searched long and hard before finally returning to Boulangerie Sawerdo. “Bread is a profession,” he says lucidly. It’s precisely this outlook that marks him, with the desire to do things well, without pretending to reinvent everything.
Tuna Melt 2.0
At Toast, the menu is short but tempting. The titles speak for themselves: a generous croque, a roast chicken sandwich with tarragon, a veggie version or even more freeform creations. They evolve according to the season and your desires. A tuna melt tartar one month, maybe something else tomorrow. No routine, no set recipes.
In this uncluttered place, which he designed and built almost entirely himself, Julien seems above all to have found what he was looking for: a form of freedom. Amidst toasted breads, the smell of warm sourdough and returning customers, he simply says he’s happy.
