Why brunch is actually wonderful, and all the haters are just plain wrong

I love restaurant brunch. Really, I do. I love the hustle and bustle of other diners, the tiny carafes filled with creamer and delicate little dishes of jam (and I don’t even like jam). I love fussy-feeling brunch dishes like eggs Benedict. I like contemplating if I want sausage links or patties because both are an option. On a movie-perfect brunch day, I like how the sunlight streams through the windows of the busy restaurant as I gossip with friends or family. I love how the morning feels filled with possibility, endless cups of coffee and the fact that my kitchen will still be clean when I get home.

This is an unpopular, uncool opinion. At least according to the many, many hot takes that have been written over the years claiming brunch “sucks” (Eater, March 2023) because it’s “for jerks” (The New York Times Opinion section, October 2014) and is “the worst meal to pay for” (Food52 blog, September 2019). To hear brunch haters tell it, everyone hates brunch, including, at least according to a New York Times food story from July 1998, chefs. Celebrity chef Bobby Flay was quoted in that story saying that most chefs hate brunch — “They hate cooking it, they hate thinking about it” — because after going out on a Saturday night post-service they have to come back to work on Sunday morning to cook eggs. (Flay also, according to that piece, asserted that he actually loves brunch, but is in the minority …) 

Flay’s take aside, the anti-brunch camp rails on about this subject because they hate standing in line for a meal that’s easy to cook at home, they hate it because the menu can feel overly expensive or phoned in and they allege that the waitstaff at brunch is usually grumpy and most likely hung over. 

What’s with all these assumptions?! 

“If you hate brunch, you probably just don’t want to get up in the morning,” says Jason Lock, the general manager at Coastal Kitchen on Capitol Hill, which has served brunch for nearly 30 years.

I’ll take it a step further and say that if you hate brunch, you’re probably just looking for something to complain about. And hey, I’m not against complaining — here I am complaining about the people who hate brunch! — I’m just saying you’re misguided.

Let’s do a little word replacement exercise subbing different words into the most common anti-brunch arguments to expose how foolish they truly are: “I don’t want to wait in line for ‘dinner’” or “I can make myself a ‘sandwich,’ why would I pay for one?” 

Reservations can (and should) be made because restaurants are busy. Also, we wait in line all the time to go to concerts and museums or even while at the bank or the DMV. At least with brunch, the line ends in pancakes! We pay for things like sandwiches (and brunch) because it’s a luxury and a privilege to not have to cook for ourselves sometimes — even if those items are dishes we can easily make at home. Plus, packaged hollandaise is just never going to be as good as fresh hollandaise made by someone who knows something about culinary chemistry. 

While the pandemic put a serious damper on brunch service around Seattle — some of my favorites have yet to return (RIP Joule’s epic brunch buffet) — the appetite for brunch is only growing. Dining rooms are bustling on weekend mornings as restaurants add or expand their brunch services, even with ongoing labor shortage woes.

Coastal Kitchen serves breakfast only on the weekends, and Saturday and Sunday mornings are now the busiest times at the restaurant, which often serves 90 guests in the first hour of service starting at 10 a.m. To help ease the crush and better handle the lively summer months, Lock says that beginning May 27, the restaurant will open for brunch an hour earlier, at 9 a.m.

Lock says the vibe at brunch is a bit more casual than at dinner: “The music can be Prince, the lights are turned up and everyone is walking around with a smile.” 

It’s fast-paced fun where servers are whirling around filling coffee and replenishing cocktails while plopping down plates of shrimp and grits and French toast topped with a dollop of Luxardo whipped cream.

Yes — the servers are smiling, Lock says. That’s another trope in the brunch-hating game; that all service staff allegedly hate working that shift.

Lock has worked in the service industry for 40 years, and while he says talent is hard to find for any meal, he hasn’t had anyone say, “Hard no, I can’t work brunch.”

“We have single parents who want to work brunch so they can have the rest of the day to spend with their families. It goes to mindset. You can enjoy something as a professional, it shouldn’t matter which meal period it is, that’s part of your job,” Lock says.

Similarly, Brooke St. Sauver and Curt Waller, partners and owners of Beacon Hill Champagne tavern The Coupe & Flute, are stumped by the persistent claim that all restaurant people hate brunch.

“I’ve never heard that, and I’ve been working brunch for years,” Waller says.

“It’s funny because I don’t work that many services, but I will not give up my brunch service. The whole vibe is good,” St. Sauver adds.

The couple have offered weekend brunch since Coupe & Flute opened in June 2022. The menu features an eclectic mix of luxurious-feeling dishes: a croissant madame with kimchi, French onion soup with duck stock, a smoked cod and chili oil-topped bagel. 

Even though the restaurant is a relative newcomer to the Beacon Hill scene, they’ve gotten pretty busy during the brunch rush, and Saturday mornings book out weeks in advance. Waller thinks it’s because of those refined brunch dishes on their menu.

“I think brunch can feel indulgent in a different way than dinner. It’s daytime, you’re obviously having a lazy day if you’re going out to brunch and most people serve some pretty basic menus — we have some creative twists,” Waller says.

So maybe it’s the indulgence factor that people take issue with? Or maybe it’s that some folks just aren’t breakfast eaters?

“I think the fancy meal has always been dinner. It’s the easiest, most common meal to go out for where with brunch, if you have kids or you have to work, there are timing issues,” James Lim, owner of Ballard’s Watson’s Counter, muses.

Unlike The Coupe & Flute, Lim didn’t set out to serve brunch at his (now very decidedly) brunch restaurant. When Watson’s Counter opened in 2019 it was a coffee shop with snacks.

“But people were like, ‘This meal is too small,’ so we had to become what people wanted us to become,” Lim says.

Watson’s Counter closed in April to move to a new Ballard location (the former Royal Drummer/Addo space on 24th Avenue, also in Ballard), but when it reopens on May 15, the menu will still be packed with fruity cereal-encrusted French toast, loco moco and KBBQ pork plates with ssamjang.

Lim says he’s embraced brunch, partially because he chooses to prioritize his personal life over his business.

“I have a partner; we’re getting married this summer. I want to have a personal life, I don’t want to work at night, but I love hospitality and I love coffee,” Lim says.

I’m grateful for Lim and his (perhaps) begrudging acceptance of that indulgent midmorning meal that has so many in a fluster, partially because Watson’s Counter is one of my favorite brunch spots in Seattle. I love that KBBQ pork plate with slabs of marinated pork belly and rice, served with kimchi and ssamjang. I always add a side of greens — crunchy romaine and herby perilla leaves — and make little lettuce wraps.

Dishes like that KBBQ pork plate make a great restaurant brunch. Dinner usually gets all the glory when it comes to dining out. But having a really thoughtful menu where every (or nearly every) dish smacks of greatness is what sets a truly spectacular brunch restaurant apart from every other restaurant that just happens to serve food on weekend mornings and call it “brunch.” 

That means in addition to those truly great brunch dishes that showcase ingredients in unique or elevated ways, there’s got to be an eye toward thoughtful touches. Yes, those adorable little carafes for milk and cream, but also menu items that don’t require a server to ask 15 special questions about how every little thing should be cooked because the way it’s presented is the way it’s supposed to be. Last but not least, there should be a good mix of breakfast and lunch options, and sweet and savory dishes. 

For example, I’m a big fan of the brunch at Kirkland’s DERU Market (723 Ninth Ave., Kirkland; derumarket.com) — especially their scrambles topped with seasonal vegetables, and the perfect, golden pancakes ($5 for a single for the table). The vibe in there is wonderfully hectic and the presentation of dishes is top-notch. At Ballard’s Fat Hen (1418 N.W. 70th St., Seattle; thefathenseattle.com), the Camicia skillet with its rich tomato sauce and housemade ricotta cuddling two just-set eggs will always have my heart — as will that incredibly cozy dining room. I can’t wait for tomato season to come back so I can tear into a poached egg BLT at Wallingford’s Union Saloon (3645 Wallingford Ave. N., Seattle; unionsaloonseattle.com), a spot that begs you to stay for a while in one of their massive booths. 

That’s not even scratching the surface of what Seattle has to offer when it comes to brunch. I’m almost ashamed to admit I’ve never had a Dutch baby at Tilikum Place! (Apparently that’s where the Dutch baby was invented?) Last I checked, reservations were booked out a month in advance. But it doesn’t make me angry, I’ll just cross my fingers for June and in the meantime get my brunch kicks elsewhere. As should you.