HOT EXPANSION: The Friendly Toast

Bostonians take a mostly dim view of the world outside our fair city. Just because your Portsmouth, New Hampshire restaurant inspires cult-like fervor up the coast doesn’t mean it will impress us here in the Hub of the Universe. You’d better bring something clever and original, or we’ll hoot you back to the hinterlands. The concept of The Friendly Toast (1 Kendall Square, Cambridge, 617.621.1200) seems fresh enough: who else is doing creative American diner fare, breakfast all day, and cocktails in a coolly retro setting stuffed with hipster-friendly bric-a-brac? The location, largely a budget-dining desert for local workers and moviegoers, seems a canny choice, too. Problem is, it’s never easy to clone a quirky brainchild, nor to remotely train a new kitchen and waitstaff to execute and serve an ambitious short-order menu. But we still have a feeling that once Friendly Toast the Second gets its oddball engine humming, it should generate the same frenzied loyalty as the original.