Toast Wine Bar & Cafe

Toast is the wine bar put together by one of the founders of dear, departed Auriga, and if you can find its little half-underground home in the northern reaches of downtown Minneapolis's Warehouse District, you will be amply rewarded with fine, unusual, affordable wines and some of the best antipasti and cheese plates in town. The wine list is particularly strong on unusual offerings from Mallorca, Compania, Sicily, Salento, and other such places where the world-flattening Godzilla of Merlot and Chardonnay hasn't obliterated indigenous grapes. The charcuterie plate is all killer and no filler--it's got some of the best dry salamis and sausages available in the United States; the ever-changing cheese plate is presented with all kinds of fine-dining high-style grace notes, such as a bit of Italian pear preserves infused with spicy mustard. Paper-crusted pizzas are topped with sophisticated combinations, and desserts, such as a panna cotta made with orange flower water, are often quite graceful. Sound like just the thing downtown needed? We'll toast to that.