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The
term is a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch. Brunch
can be served after a morning event or prior to an afternoon one, such as a
wedding or sporting event. It is
usually a more relaxed meal than breakfast or lunch, and considered
appropriate for informal celebrations. A
Simpsons episode (7G11) famously described brunch this way: "It's
not quite breakfast, it's not quite lunch, but it comes with a slice of
cantaloupe at the end." Some
restaurants and hotels serve brunch, especially on weekends and holidays. Such
brunches are often serve-yourself buffets, but menu-ordered meals may be
available instead of, or with, the buffet. The
meal usually involves standard breakfast foods such as eggs, pancakes,
sausages, bacon, ham, fruits, pastries, and the like.
However, it can include almost any other type of food served throughout the
day. Buffets
may have large roasts of meat or poultry, cold seafood like shrimp and
smoked fish, salads, soups, vegetable dishes, many types of breadstuffs, and
desserts of all sorts. The dim
sum brunch is a popular meal in Chinese restaurants world-wide. It
consists of a wide variety of stuffed bao (buns), dumplings, and other
savory or sweet food items which have been steamed, deep-fried, or baked.
Customers select what they want from passing carts, as the kitchen
continuously produces and sends out more freshly prepared dishes.
Brunch Culture and Marketing Brunch
is often marketed as a premium meal, and there is a cult-like following of
brunch fans who enthusiastically support its premium pricing.
Restaurants that cater to the brunch subculture may offer brunch as late as
5 p.m. on weekends, though cutoff times between 2 and 3 p.m. are more
common. The
identifying characteristics of brunch may prove elusive to a newbie. For
example: The
all-inclusive nature of a buffet undeniably combines breakfast and lunch
elements; but
purveyors of menu-based brunch, in which individual dishes are often
identical to those served at breakfast or lunch, face a different
challenge—how to distinguish their menus from any run-of-the-mill pancake
house.
Inspired by this dilemma, a brunch humorist has noted that "brunch is a meal
that costs as much as breakfast and lunch combined." Both
the brunch purveyor and the pancake house may offer separate dishes of a
plate of eggs and a grilled cheese sandwich. To the
pancake house this is simply a normal, non-premium state of affairs, so the
brunch purveyor must take action to support the premium pricing and the
brunch identity.
Marketing techniques employed by brunch purveyors include but are not
limited to: •
Simply calling it "brunch" (this alone seems to sway some consumers). • Use
of trendy decor and fashionable dress code for staff. • Align
restaurant with a food movement, such as Organic or Slow Food. •
Introduce eccentric changes to a dish, such as replacing the turkey in a
california club sandwich with an egg, or adding spinach to eggs Benedict. •
Replace pancake syrup with cream-based sauces and fruit or chocolate drizzles
that are normally reserved for the restaurant's desserts. • Offer
an egg dish such as migas or quiche which is outside the restaurant's normal
range of specialties, thus adding exotic flair. • When
applicable, leverage restaurant's status as Michelin or Zagat rated to
support brunch mystique. • Use
pancake flavors that go beyond the common fruit varieties, such as
gingerbread, pumpkin, and buckwheat. In the
end, the brunches which will appear most distinct to a brunch outsider are
those served at restaurants that are slightly eccentric or premium to begin
with, which is to say that you can't repurpose the cream and chocolate
drizzles from your gourmet desserts to your pancakes if you don't have
gourmet desserts to begin with. |
