Tag: brunch

Brunch always sounds like a good idea in theory—indulgent eats, coffee made by someone other than you, and place to socialize in the morning. But then you arrive, and the restaurant is packed, there’s no place to sit while you wait, and you desperately need caffeine. But if you plan ahead, these 10 spots take reservations, so you won't have to wait.

Eat My Biscuits, an all-day brunch restaurant coming to East Point in June, will offer chicken biscuits, short rib with grits, salmon croquettes, fried green tomatoes, and Hennessy wings, plus waffles, pancakes, and French toast. Each meal will come with a fried biscuit.

In pre-pandemic times, the Buckhead restaurant’s brunch was iconic, known for laying out a fabulous spread of dishes in the kitchen itself, allowing guests to wind through and see where the magic happens (and take in the charming knickknacks the adorn the space). When the pandemic began, the buffet brunch ended, and Local Three switched to an à la carte menu. It just wasn’t the same.

If we’re being honest, to borrow a quote from Erykah Badu’s song “The Healer,” brunch in Atlanta might be bigger than religion. Many of us attend worship services on weekend mornings. Yet on any given Sunday, it’s probably also true that a similar number of Atlantans can be found faithfully enjoying an 11:05 mimosa or paloma with friends, sorors, cousins, classmates—maybe even someone they met at church last weekend.

Serving Sunday brunch is one thing. Pulling off a drag show is another. But serving back-to-back brunches for hundreds of guests while nine high-octane drag queens perform in full costume, higher-than-heaven hair, and a full set of lights and music? That, in the words of performer and maître d’ Evelyn Caldwell, “is just madness.”

It’s no secret chefs hate brunch. In his 2000 book, Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain famously disparaged the booze-laden meal that’s not quite breakfast, not quite lunch—and not much has changed in the decades since. “I would be shocked if you were to find a chef who likes it,” said Zach Meloy, the former chef-owner of Better Half, which shuttered in 2018.

At 12:30 p.m. on a Sunday in early December, Erika Council’s Bomb Biscuit Co. was already booming. Council’s reputation preceded her new restaurant in Old Fourth Ward: She’s been operating Bomb Biscuit in various configurations—pop-ups, deliveries, a space at Irwin Street Market—since 2016, and today, patrons were lined up in anticipation of ordering Council’s famously fluffy creations.

Mimosas, Bellinis, and Bloody Marys will always have their place on the brunch table, but restaurants are getting more creative.

During the pandemic, Fu-Mao Sun launched a pop-up called Mighty Hans that specializes in Taiwanese American fare; his brunches, featuring some of the dishes you see here, gained him scores of fans.

In late spring, Tasha Cyril will open her second brunch-focused restaurant in Atlanta. Called J’ouvert Caribbean Kitchen, it complements Cyril’s growing, Caribbean-inspired hospitality empire that includes Belle & Lily’s Caribbean Brunch House, APT 4B, and Ms. Icey’s Kitchen and Bar.