The surprisingly heartwarming story behind artisanal toast

When a San Francisco food writer went looking for the origin - the Patient Zero, if you will - of the "extremely expensive toast" fad, he found a far more amazing story than I ever would have thought.

The artisanal, $4 a slice toast movement has been accused of being a form of conspicuous consumption, "flaunting your wealth," particularly in San Francisco (the apparent epicenter of artisanal toast), where tech industry types with six-figure salaries have driven up real estate prices, pushing out the low-income hippies and beatniks who argue that they are the ones who made the city what it was. Artisanal toast, in other words, is just the latest manifestation of gentrification.

But it only took a few hops down the line before the reporter found that the idea behind artisanal toast came from a young woman suffering from mental illness with an incredible story of recovery. Before opening her small coffee house, Giuletta Carelli (who suffers from schizoaffective disorder) had a rough time of it. Her café, Trouble, saved her life by providing an anchor to reality, a sense of permanence that she had always sought but never been able to attain.

In addition to coffee (both drip and espresso), Trouble sells young Thai coconuts and freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice, because Carelli claims that these two things together are all you need to sustain life. (She spent several years living exclusively on grapefruit and coconuts.)

She also sells big fat slices of locally-baked bread, toasted, buttered, and covered with cinnamon sugar. When you read her story, it's hard not to feel like the foodie movement has plucked this one minor thing out of Carelli's life and run with it, making money hand over fist while Carelli continues to struggle to keep her little café afloat.

It's pretty amazing, and also now I really want some toast. When you see this hot new trend popping up in your area, remember Giulietta Carelli's amazing story.

Image courtesy Flickr/moriza