Dan the Baker - Toast Bar — Restaurant in Columbus

Wow, the croissants are amazing $10 dollars a pop, but worth it for the special occasion. Pistachio Vera is also very very good at half the price. When buying for friends and family I'll buy Pistachio Vera's croissants, but when I indulge just for myself it's Dan all the way. I consider myself somewhat of a croissant aficionado as I took a French field trip to Europe with my HS in 1983. Every breakfast was one fresh hardbread roll and one fresh croissant. My classmate and roommate didn't like croissants, so I spent 17 mornings eating 2 fresh French croissants, drinking espresso and smoking cigarettes(it was the 80s). My life and search for great croissants began. In the early 90s I discovered the French Loaf in Grandview and that was my goto spot. It was sold in the 2000s the the croissants were never the same. I discovered Pistachio Vero croissants and they were so good, as was all their other pasteries (still are). My husband stumbled upon Dan's place and brought home a loaf. Delicious breads worth the money, pastries are wonderful too but I usually just get the croissants. Dan has a new space, right next to the old. Bigger, airy, nicely decorated with lots of plants. A few tables to eat in. I'm excited because I always have a big holiday order and the new space will probably reduce my anxiety of having to stand in line outside in the rain/snow to get my order. Yes the items are pricey but well worth it. I'm a strictly middle class girl, with high class tastes and...

Pricing was a little bit shocking and the bread was on the burnt side. The pastries were good and fairly large but at nearly 10 dollars a piece I don't see the value. For reference a loaf of bread is 13 dollars which slightly over the price of a loaf from the iconic Tartine bakery which sells a you a significantly larger loaf for 12.75. I am a bread baker myself and enjoy heartily baked dark bread but the baguette was at the end of its life when I purchased it and the loaf was frankly over baked. I came by early in the morning and the baguette was warm when I purchased it, even at this point at its peak of freshness to the end user it was tough to bite through and chew. By the evening it is essentially a crouton. The gentleman at the register mentioned that the bread was warm from its second bake. This seems like a mistake in my estimation. Perhaps it is to try to allow the bakers a better schedule which is understandable but it's not doing the product any favors when you bake it twice and to that dark coloration. This place shows promise and clearly there are some good bakers at work, hopefully they can right the ship and provide the customers with a...

The bread is good. Possibly the best in Columbus, and I’m glad it’s here and adds to the food culture. My only gripe is the prices- they are extremely steep such that going here is reserved for special occasions only. I spent $80 here on 2 galettes, and a couple loaves of bread. To add insult to injury, when I paid with a credit card the machine defaulted to a suggested 20% tip! I’m sorry but I can’t tip $16 to someone who put a couple of loaves of bread in a bag.

I’m guessing the ingredients are super premium… as the location isn’t in a high end area and it is extremely small, while this place is advertised as a toast bar there are no toast pieces for sale and nowhere inside to eat anything.

One suggestion would be to sell half loaves or to just make the loaves smaller. This might make the prices seem more reasonable, as many loaves of bread are pushing $20.

I think the olive polenta bread is quite good. I’ve seen a lot of variance though as to how many olives and...