For Your Viewing Pleasure: Brunch Menus

Very long weekend and week. A bit frazzled, but promises of delicious brunchy bits to come. Until my next brunch outing, I'm tiding myself over with images of brunch menus from around the world. And by "the world," I mean the United States and Canada.

Fresco's, Somewhere in Canda
http://www.frescoseurogrille.ca

I like this one because it has a Zaftig holding a try full of delicious and instead of giving you a full menu. Fresco's keeps it simple, they don't provide menu details -- I'm guessing they hope you'll be sold on the All You Can Eat Sunday Brunch Buffet premise, which they deemed important enough to capitalize for emphasis unlike the claim that it's "Great for the whole family," because it's probably not that great. Between the pizza, pasta and the extraneous comma after "bar" (or LACK of commas after "pasta" and "chicken," but let's just assume it's one typo and not two), I feel like this menu is for Canada's equivalent of a Denny's.

Butch McGuire's, Chicago, IL
 http://www.butchmcguires.com

I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I THINK Butch McGuire might be Irish. Not from Ireland, mind you, or else he would probably wouldn't have felt the need to label the entree section of the brunch menu "Top O' the Mornings." Nor the need to ask his patrons to "Build your O' Omlet." Nor to advertise that you can "Plan O' Party" at his pub. Oh, and if you didn't notice the shamrocks bursting out of the logo in the bottom center, you're probably blind. I have a soft spot for pub food, and I do bet the food is greasy and delicious in the way that I'm ashamed to admit I love (particularly when hung over). If anyone ever eats here, I need to know: is it as tacky as the menu leads me to believe? More importantly, how are the Bloody Marys?

Bistro Bistro, Washington DC

http://www.bistrobistrodc.com/

Titular redundancy aside, Bistro Bistro has a fancy pants menu next to Butch's and Canadian Denny's. Voted the #1 brunch buffet in D.C., in a survey that may have only included the people who worked on Bistro Bistro's website (they offer no details to lead you to assume otherwise), this menu doesn't scare away people the way that Butch's might. No, this is a menu for the truly elegant brunch consumer. The don't serve crepes as Bistro Bistro -- far too pedestrian -- they serve crêpes. And don't even think of asking for a vegetarian crêpe, you pleb, you better ask for a Crêpe Végétarien. If you're not feeling up to the task of accenting your order, you can rest easy knowing that you can always just get the Pancakes & Meat -- no circumflex required. This place looks legitimately delicious, and if I ever wind up in the D.C. area for Sunday brunch, the Crêpe de Paris is going to be on my plate.

And finally, a San Franciscan menu

Panam, San Francisco, CA

http://www.panamsf.com/

I actually find this menu aesthetically pleasing, which is only funny because their website is so grating that I want to throw my computer into a wall. There's a music loop that you can stop -- momentarily. As soon as you open another tab or it feels otherwise neglected, the damn irritating loop starts back up again. It's awful music too, so it's not just annoying in its repetition, it's actually just fucking annoying. What was I talking about? Oh, yeah, menus. Well, this place also tries to fancify (just made that word up, write it down OED!) its offerings by using Francophone glyphs. GOSH DARN IT. That stupid music has completely crashed my train of thought. And with that, I'm going to bed.

Eat, Drink and Brunch Merry.