Tell us who’s best for brunch.
We’re looking for the best of the city’s best, and we need your help
A lineup snaking out the restaurant door can mean only one thing. It’s brunch, increasingly the most popular meal on the going-out menu.
Purveyors of waffles citywide are noting that diners — particularly families — find brunch to be the perfect way to celebrate love and leisure. There is something luxurious about eating at midday. Brunch is playing hooky, and it offers a comfort quotient borne of simple preparations often based on eggs.
“It’s their free day — you don’t have to go back to work and you don’t have tickets to the theatre,” notes Upper Crust owner Megan Rich, who has been serving brunch on Saturdays for more than 20 years at the cosy south side eatery. She has noticed a recent uptick in the crowds.
In some bigger cities, notably Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, there has been a bit of a brunch backlash, as pointed out by author Shawn Micallef in his recent book, The Trouble with Brunch: Work, Class and the Pursuit of Leisure. Long lineups, grumpy servers and over-the-top prices for toast have had some folk fleeing to local diners, if only for the solace of a padded booth. Here in Edmonton, though, the pace is less frantic, and brunch, less fraught. Some places even take reservations.
To celebrate our unique culture of brunch, the Journal is launching a series on the area’s most beloved brunch spots (tough job, but hey, someone’s got to do it!). And we want your input. Get in touch through email with Arts & Features editor, Keri Sweetman, with your favourite spots to wash back a scone with a glass of freshsqueezed orange juice.
And be specific. Are you besotted with the hash browns? Or is it the fact that your brunch location caters to the wee ones? Is the coffee worth a second sip, the waiter, a second glance? Send your suggestions to ksweetman@edmontonjournal.com.
Once we have a good assortment of restaurants to choose from, feature writer Brent Wittmeier and I will visit them, rate them and rank them. Watch for the results starting in mid-September.