Toast Restaurant Garners Prestigious Nomination for Its Design

, one the most popular restaurants in the relatively new Hamilton Marketplace shopping center, earned some bragging rights Monday when it was named as a finalist for a prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for restaurant design.

Time magazine called the Beard awards “the Oscars of the food world,” and they are considered by insiders as the country's most coveted honor for chefs, restaurants and others in the food and drink industry.

Toast Novato, designed by Stanley Saitowitz of San Francisco, opened in 2009 as a sister location for Toast in Mill Valley. Both are owned by Shahram Bijan.

"I found out from an e-mail from our architect, and now I'm getting texts and e-mails from all sorts of people," Bijan said. "It's super exciting to be nominated."

The Novato location is about 4,000 square feet, features an open-air kitchen, has walls painted to resemble toast and has an artistic, modern design.

The nomination will bring Toast some national attention. For more on the nominees, check here.