I am a dedicated fan of brunch. I want to think that brunches are pretentious, and really only for people who have hours to spare on weekends, but I love them.
One of my favorite parts of Saturday and Sunday is sitting at a table in the dining hall with my friends for a few hours. People come and go, groggily walking in, getting several servings of food and looking way less hot than they did when I saw them last (at 3 AM). We don’t always plan it, everyone just seems to get up and get hungry, but I just really enjoy it.
Sadly, the one thing that always is lacking during what we call brunch (even though we never start before noon) is good food. This weekend, I was lucky to be able to get some real brunch and now I love it even more.
My family came to visit, and though it was Valentine’s in NYC, we weren’t sure how many people would be out since it was below freezing. We ended up having to change our original reservation at Cafe Cluny, but I want to give them a shout out anyway. I was planning to order the avocado toast, and I still plan to someday-it sounds delicious.
After getting an early start, I aimed to get my parents to the Museum of Natural History. There were some issues with holiday subway changes and upon arriving at the museum it looked like we might be in line for an hour, so we headed down 2 blocks and decided to go into the New York Historical Society, mainly because I had had no food and I was getting progressively meaner. The historical society had a cafe where we began our brunch adventure. We got pane brioche and cappuccinos-all of which were delicious. The whole time we marveled at the barista who was somehow making every drink look classy and delicious.
Finally, we headed downtown to meet for 2 PM “brunch” (it’s still brunch if they’re still using the brunch menu!) at the Red Cat.
We were treated to warm drinks and insanely good melted fontina and bread. We got another bread-starter with nutella and bananas, herbed fries, and our main meals. The moral of the story is really that I ate a lot of bread, but all of the food was delicious and the desserts that I told myself I would be too stuffed for were too good to pass up.
By the time we were sitting, happily fattened up in a cab, it was practically supper time back at school, so I joined my friends and drank some juice and lived vicariously through their meal even though I couldn’t fit another bite myself.
Maybe I just enjoy any event where it is acceptable to eat for several hours, but I think it’s time for everyone to find a favorite brunch spot.
