If you haven’t heard already, brunch is for jerks. The meal, according to the New York Times, has come to represent two of the most reviled groups in recent journalistic history: millennials and gentrifiers. In fact, if we drew a Venn Diagram, that little shaded bit in the center would be labeled “bottomless mimosas.” Whether you love or hate brunch, the meal has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity. It’s now virtually impossible to find a restaurant that doesn’t serve brunch on the weekends, leading to the proliferation of breakfast pizzas and unlimited brunch tapas. Last year, we gave you thirteen of our favorite brunch spots. This year, we’re adding 18 more brunches, each for a different occasion or need. Because brunch isn’t just for jerks—it’s for all different kinds of jerks.
Did we miss your favorite brunch spot? Be sure to also consult our 2013 picks before you get your undies in a twist. And let us know your suggestions in the comments.
Photo by Lukas Eklund.
FLORIDA AVENUE GRILL: Here’s what the New York Times got wrong: brunch isn’t bullshit, brunch culture is. By definition, brunch is “a meal that combines breakfast and lunch and that is usually eaten in late morning.” So, even if I despise what’s associated with “brunch” these days, if I wake up late on the weekend and go out to eat breakfast, it’s technically brunch. Whatever, it’s still breakfast to me, which is why I love the legendary Florida Avenue Grill. There’s no “bottomless mimosas” and “small plates” bullshit there and you’ll be shamed if you try and linger after you finish your meal. It’s crowded, yes, but they move through tables quickly, to ensure you won’t wait long to eat. And the food? Well, Mr. T and crew ate there after every shift for a reason. (Because it’s awesome). — Matt Cohen
Florida Avenue Grill is located at 1100 Florida Avenue NW.
TAQUERIA NACIONAL: Unsure if it’s fair to call this brunch, but Taqueria Nacional, brilliantly located right near some of the worst offenders of brunch culture in this city (Ted’s Bulletin, Masa 14, Matchbox, Policy), serves breakfast tacos and quesadillas until noon, so I guess that counts. There’s never any wait, the place is usually empty, and the breakfast tacos are actually really good. If you get fed up waiting an hour for a table at one of those 14th Street seventh circle of brunch hell, give up and go here. You’ll be done before Ted’s calls you to tell your table is ready. — Matt Cohen
Taqueria Nacional is located at 1409 T Street NW.
LE BOUM BRUNCH AT L’ENFANT CAFE: If you don’t want the party to stop, L’Enfant Cafe’s Le Boum brunch might be for you. The three-hour long affair features cases of free flowing champagne, burlesque performers, DJs, and raucous dance floor. Oh, and somewhere in there you eat some eggs. (Needless to say, the food isn’t really the focus…) The brunch party has become so popular it’s even launched a spin-off evening event. If you want to experience the wild afternoon that is Le Boum, you’ll have to plan ahead. Reservations must be made online and frequently sell out weeks in advance. —Alicia Mazzara
L’Enfant Cafe is located at 2000 18th Street NW.
TED’S BULLETIN: Ted’s Bulletin doesn’t serve brunch per se; they just serve breakfast all day. In the event that you need to soak up a particularly bitter hangover, Ted’s offers a number of delicious gut bombs. The Walk of Shame Burrito is, indeed, a shameful and genius combination of steak, eggs, cheese, green chile sauce, and hash browns stuffed inside a tortilla. But the real piece de resistance is the T.U.B.S., Ted’s Ultimate Breakfast Sammy. It’s also an accurate description of how big you’ll feel after consuming this double egg, double meat monstrosity. For something sweet, opt for a cinnamon roll as big as your head. If Ted’s doesn’t cure your hangover, the nap it induces surely will. —Alicia Mazzara
Ted’s Bulletin has three locations in Capitol Hill (508 8th Street SE), 14th St (1818 14th Street NW), and Reston (11948 Market Street).
Photo by Samer Farha.
BUSBOYS AND POETS: I like an egg every once in awhile, but brunch can be a tough sell for those who don’t eat them, or people like me who just love lunch so much more! Can’t I go out for lunch on a weekend, people?! Busboys and Poets’ fully stocked menu fits this bill—great salads, sandwiches (like the tempeh panini!), soups and even entrees—all at brunch time! They do have a bunch of egg, tofu-scramble, pancake and other breakfast dishes too, so you breakfast-lovers needn’t worry. Bonus points to Busboys for being a solid option for both meat-eaters and vegetarians alike—it’s my go-to for out-of-town friends with varying diets, and it never disappoints. —Lynne Venart
Busboys and Poets has four locations in the D.C. area: 14th and V streets NW, 5th and K streets NW, in Shirlington and in Hyattsville.
SMITH COMMONS: Most of the brunch options at Smith Commons are under $15 and a good size. The real star is the Tex Mex Bloody Mary, made with Absolut Cilantro, house Bloody Mary Mix, and fresh Pico de Gallo. Putting Pico (chopped tomato, cilantro, onion, peppers, salt, and lime juice) in a Bloody is one of those “Why have I never thought of this before?” things because it makes so much sense, and the tastes naturally go together. Try it with the Fried Confit Chicken & Waffle or the 63º Eggs Benedict with Serrano ham. —Josh Kramer
Smith Commons is located at 1245 H Street NE.
BLUE DUCK TAVERN: Blue Duck Tavern’s brunch is an excellent way to impress your parents while also stuffing yourself with top-flight food. You’ll find all your typical brunch staples on the menu, but classier: a short rib hash with an olive oil poached egg, steak and eggs featuring Wagyu beef, waffles with Nutella and a peanut bacon crumble, and wood-fired pecan sticky buns. Brunch cocktails are made with tea—think bracing Earl Gray or delicate cherry blossom green—which also feels oh-so-civilized.—Alicia Mazzara
Blue Duck Tavern is located at 1201 24th Street NW.
ZENGO: Brunch at Zengo is not for the faint of heart. The Chinatown Latin-Asian restaurant offers a $39 bottomless brunch on Saturday and Sunday mornings. You can eat—and drink—one of everything if you’d like. And we have, several times over. Brunch at Zengo requires a bit of a strategy. Here’s ours: go with a big group and ask the server for one of everything. We’ve never gotten a skeptical look, just a stream of small plates directly to the table and quickly into our stomachs. Looking for a departure from traditional brunch fare? Zengo’s got you covered. The lobster-chipotle grits are a must-try, as are the bacon fried rice and the plantains. Don’t worry if your tastes are a little more traditional. The bacon and scrambled egg steamed buns are equally well done. While bloody marys and mimosas are on the menu, they’re anything but standard. Try a guava mimosa or a sake sangria with your meal to shake things up. —Juana Summers
Zengo is located at 781 7th Street NW.
Tip: If unlimited tapas are your thing, all of Richard Sandoval’s restaurants, including Zengo, El Centro, Ambar, and Masa 14 (our 2013 brunch pick), offer an unlimited tapas brunch deal on the weekends.
Photo by Ted Eytan.
LIBERTY TAVERN: Buffets are a difficult proposition for restaurants and diners alike. For most kitchens, cooking food in large-scale batches (and keeping the food replenished and reasonably fresh) is a strange foray into banquet-style cooking reminiscent of a hotel. And for diners, it’s difficult not to associate buffet-style food with a dip in quality. But sometimes, you just need find a buffet and eat more food than your body can reasonably handle; and for brunch, that’s where Liberty Tavern comes in. An Arlington staple, Liberty Tavern has somehow seemed to crack the code and make their brunch buffet a very worthwhile endeavor, as they keep the food looking and tasting as if it just came fresh out of the kitchen. Among the massive spread laid out in the restaurant’s upstairs section, you’ll find some always-welcome staples—scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, cheddar grits, etc. But save room on your plate(s) for the restaurant’s specialties such as fried chicken and braised pork ragu. All of this comes with a price tag of $21.95—a big step down from some other brunch buffets in the area. So while you might leave feeling more gluttonous than ever, at least you can feel good about not overspending. —Jordan Anthony-Brown
Liberty Tavern is located in Clarendon at 3195 Wilson Boulevard.
EAT THE RICH: Experiencing breakfast meat overload? Eat the Rich has just the antidote with their shellfish-heavy Fisherman’s Brunch. For a serious change of pace, try the snakehead fish pie or Waterman’s Remedy, a seafood broth rich with shellfish dumplings and squid ink noodles. Or go with the special of the house, the Chesapeake Boil, a hefty platter of rotating seafood, sausages, and coddled eggs served with grilled bread. Even the drinks taste of the sea: the restaurant makes their own Clamato (a savory blend of tomato and clam juice that I swear is delicious despite the description) for a oceanic twist on the classic Bloody Mary and Michelada. —Alicia Mazzara
Eat the Rich is located at 1839 7th Street NW.
VINOTECA: Brunch isn’t exactly the healthiest of meals, but at Vinoteca you can at least pretend to work off some of the calories. After polishing off some duck confit benedict or French toast with ricotta and lavender honey, try your hand at the classic Italian game of bocce. The restaurant’s lively back patio features a pair of bocce courts, and I hear your aim only improves with each additional $3 mimosa. For maximum old Italian man cred, be sure to trade in your champagne for some Campari. —Alicia Mazzara
Vinoteca is located at 1940 11th St NW.
BOMBAY CLUB: Clink a glass (or two) of champagne and soak in the live piano music while enjoying traditional Indian cooking, complete with warm naan and rice. Bombay Club’s classy Sunday buffet ($20.95) features rotating meat, fish, chicken and vegetable dishes of varying spice levels, so arrive hungry. Upgrade to bottomless champagne for an additional $7. —Travis Mitchell
Bombay Club is located at 815 Connecticut Avenue NW.
BULLFROG BAGELS: The good news is that a soul-satisfying taste of childhood nostalgia is now available retail. The throwback at hand is the kind of bagel served at traditional family brunch, fully loaded with smoked salmon, tomato, onions, capers and cream cheese. You can chew on this homey masterpiece thanks to Bullfrog Bagels. In addition to the classic smoked salmon bagel, Bullfrog serves a variety of eggy and lunch-minded sandwiches. Catch is, you can only take it to go since there’s no dine-in option yet. And there will be a potentially epic line. And they close at noon on weekends. And they might sell out before then. None of these complications has stopped the bagel-loving masses. Use your noodle* and place an online order for weekend pickup. (*Watch for homemade Jewish ramen soon, says co-owner Jeremiah Cohen.) — Andrea Adleman
Bullfrog Bagels is located at 1341 H Street NE.
Photo by Bill Adler.
CAVA MEZZE: For those not up on their Mediterranean, mezze are essentially small dishes meant to precede a meal, or accompany adult beverages (several of which you’ll likely be having). But Cava’s menu doesn’t feature your typical one or two bite plates; while they’re not necessarily full entrée size, you’ll absolutely get your money’s worth, as the portions are hard to argue with and very reasonable to share. On top of that, you’ll find unique menu items beyond the typical eggs benedict and omelets, such as gyro hash, Nutella waffles, and a Greek breakfast burrito. And in case you need an added incentive, Cava Mezze boasts, quite literally, the best French toast that I have ever had. That’s not hyperbole, so go get you some. —Jordan Anthony-Brown
Cava Mezze has locations in Capitol Hill (527 8th Street SE), Clarendon (2940 Clarendon Boulevard), and Rockville (9713 Traville Gateway Drive).
SO’S YOUR MOM: If you’re of the opinion that brunch is for jerks, but you still enjoy eating outside of your home on weekend mornings, I recommend heading over to Adams Morgan and getting your brunch to go, in the form of a delicious sandwich from So’s Your Mom. A small deli stocked with a few shelves of specialty groceries, So’s Your Mom also happens to have some of the best bagels in the city (and since it’s not a pop-up, you know when you go, bagels will be in stock). If you’re in a breakfast mood, get a toasted bagel with your topping of choice—I recommend their whitefish salad. If lunch is calling your name, So’s Your Mom has plenty of sandwich options, from three kinds of salami to a hummus pocket stuffed with veggies. Get a coffee, maybe a carton of OJ, pay the friendly cashier in cash (cash only!), and head outside. If you must eat immediately, sit on the bench outside. Otherwise, walk a block to Kalorama Park and enjoy your brunch al fresco, satisfied with the knowledge that you successfully avoided the brunch crowds and the whole outing cost $5.—Elizabeth Packer
So’s Your Mom is located at 1831 Columbia Road NW.
TED’S BULLETIN: Considering our two year-old provides us our daily alarm clock at 6am every morning, why do brunch and risk it being dangerously close to naptime when Ted’s Bulletin is open on Sundays starting at 7am. Not only are the wait times tolerable if non-existent, but the black and white films projected on the wall keep our kiddo entertained while he’s not scarfing down pancakes or having a bite of mom and dad’s pop tart. And kudos to our waiter for providing (sealed) plastic cups filled with sprinkles to keep our son busy when he wasn’t eating. — Brett Gellman
Ted’s Bulletin has three locations in Capitol Hill (508 8th Street SE), 14th St (1818 14th Street NW), and Reston (11948 Market Street).
COMMISSARY: There’s no shortage of places to get your brunch on in Logan Circle these days, but Commissary remains my old standby. Their egg & cheese sandwich with home fries is a tasty steal for $5 and their jalapeno-infused Bloody Mary has the perfect amount of kick. If you’re looking to nurse your hangover in peace, this is definitely the place to go. Commissary has a whole section of individual couches for solo diners—a sanctuary for the introverts and misanthropes among us. —Victoria Finkle
Commissary is located at 1443 P Street NW.
DOS GRINGOS: If you don’t live in Mount Pleasant, you’ve probably never been to Dos Gringos. It’s an unpretentious neighborhood place, with friendly staff and a sizable patio, right on Mount Pleasant Street. It also happens to be a great place to have brunch. You won’t need to make a reservation. You won’t find any mentions of hollandaise sauce or small plates. You will find a variety of breakfast and lunch options to satisfy all tastes, including vegans, and the best part is that nothing costs more than $10. Try the gigantic cilantro egg burrito ($4.50), the breakfast bagel ($3.50) that comes with cream cheese, avocado, tomato, onion and capers, or my favorite, the plato tipico ($7), which consists of scrambled eggs, black bean mash, fried plantains, sliced tomatoes and ranchero sauce. Dos Gringos isn’t hip; it’s not artisanal; and the food won’t blow your mind. But it is a great neighborhood spot where the staff know the regulars and the coffee’s always hot.—Elizabeth Packer
Dos Gringos is located at 3116 Mt Pleasant Street NW.
CHURCHKEY: ChurchKey is a off-the-brunch-radar solid play. While most are pressing to get into the upscale sister restaurant Birch and Barley downstairs, the upstairs has brunch food (albeit a smaller menu) and all the world-class drafts without the brutal crowds usually there Thursday-Saturday. Most brunch crowds make me want to scramble heads with a ball peen hammer and add a light morel and tarragon cream sauce to their corpses. ChurchKey is usually a relaxed atmosphere with minimal douchebaggery and usually an empty seat. —John Fluery
ChurchKey is located at 1337 14th Street NW.
