Brunch Trends: Predictions for 2013

Photo: Alan Klim

Fried Eggs w/ Fried Kale, Central Kitchen, San Francisco

2012 was the year of fried chicken & waffles and other southern inspired brunch dishes. Even the classiest of brunch services had some variation of the Waffle Hut staple on their menu, including Bar Tartine's served on potato bread, Zero Zero's honey butter smothered and maple syrup-soaked waffle, or Farmer Brown's perfect execution of the archetype. This year, the southern trend tapers out.

In 2013, carb-laden dishes will generally be eschewed for dishes that center on the protein. Instead of benedicts on buttermilk biscuits, dishes like baked eggs that appeal to the gluten-free crowd will be showing up on menus. Fancy (and fancifully) fried eggs will make a resurgence for the same reason, so anticipate seeing luxuriously fried eggs, like Nopa's butter basted eggs, being served with crisped and fried greens like kale and brussel sprouts.

Pimm's Punch, Foreign Cinema, San Francisco

Cocktails will also be getting more of the spotlight. The brunch-time standards, the mimosa & bloody mary, will get some stiff competition from drinks crafted with an artisan touch. Aromatic bitters will make their way to the brunch table in creatively — not overtly — sweet, herbaly  concoctions that are balanced to compliment brunch fare, not overpower it.

Pimm's, the British day-drinking staple, and punches will also be making their way from bars to the brunch table. At lower-brow brunch joints, Lemon Shandies, the beer and lemon soda European import, will gain in popularity. And the shandy will be a good alternative to mimosas, which are too often disappointingly proportioned with overly sweet sparkling wine — mimosa perfection is an art unto itself, one that is rarely mastered.

Pork Belly Plate, Zero Zero, SF

Pork will be the go-to meat, but not in bacon form. Traditional brunch dishes will get the pork the upgrade, like pork belly benedicts. Pork Sausage, pork rillettes, and braised pork will also be popping up everywhere.

Lastly, the trendy brunch item of 2013 (and this might be a gamble): brunch pizza. With the number of high-end pizza joints, expect to see some offering brunch services featuring egg and bacon covered varieties.

Brunch Pizza, Zero Zero, San Francisco

And to wrap up, here's a bit more food porn for you. Happy brunching in 2013!

                             

                                         Baked Eggs, Nopa, 

 

Baked Eggs & Chorizo, Central Kitchen

It's Been Awhile, Non?

While I might have been a bit MIA here on the brunch blog, I've been keeping busy on Twitter and writing about San Francisco brunches for Sōsh an awesome local activity discovery site for San Francisco! 

Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to update my blog with my Sōsh write ups, as well have a return to form — I'll be back to brunch blogging as a new year's resolution. Speaking of new years, expect to see a post on my 2013 brunch predictions soon!

Upward Trends: Southern Style Brunch Staples

The Boxing Room's Brunch Offerings

Having rarely travelled below the Mason/Dixon line, I won't claim to be an authority on southern cuisine. Recently, however, it feels like you don't need to leave Yankee territory to get a yourself a helping of southern staples — you just need to go to brunch.

Zero Zero's Chicken & Waffles

In San Francisco there seems to be an ever growing abundance of menus serving up the almost unholy signature southern dish: fried chicken and waffles. From fancy brunches to street-side service, you can get a crispy waffle smothered by even crispier chicken.

Top choices for a fixing of fried chicken & waffles in San Francisco are:

• Zero Zero, they cover your waffles in a layer of butter and syrup to get the perfect balance of savory and sweet.
• Farmer Browns Little Skillet —they will do you right, with a distinctly sweet waffle and the crispiest of chicken.
• Citizen Band — does refined diner better than anyone, and their fried chicken is no exception.
• Good Foods Catering — A regular at the Window SF,  Good Foods makes chicken & waffles with some soul.
• Town Hall — The fanciest entry on the list, brunch at Town Hall is a must-try. Regulars will know that the only thing that could make their fried chicken better is a helping of waffles.

Farmer Browns: Fancy Soul Food

But make no mistake, chicken & waffles isn't the only southern flavor popping up around San Francisco. More than just southern and soul inspired, The Boxing Room and Brenda's French Soul Food have menus wholly devoted to bringing New Orleans cuisine to San Francisco (you won't find chicken & waffles on either of their menus).

Both Boxing & Brenda's serve up a good number of brunch dishes featuring crawfish, catfish and grits. If you're feeling adventurous, you'll regularly spot alligator on Boxing Room's menu too.

I'm keeping my eye out for the growing number of shrimp & grits dishes around San Francisco (a personal favorite of mine), so I may be following up with another southern post soon. And with that, I'll leave you with a tantalizing look at Serpentine's biscuits & gravy.

Serpentine's Biscuits & Gravy

Mixing Business with Pleasure: The Brunch Blog Makes a Video

Without giving too much away about my real life, I can readily admit to having a job. Being gainfully employed mean I don't get to spend as much time as I would like brunching and writing about brunch, but sometimes my worlds collide.

Last week I set out to better understand the world of video creation. A few simple facts made me perfect self experiment:

• I'm not a film maker
• I don't harbor any secret dreams to be a YouTube superstar 
• I have a blog completely unrelated to work with lots of pictures

The goal was to see if I could create a compelling video for my blog using only the resources I had on hand: my iPhone and the internet. I used some free online video creation services and this is what I came up with...

If anyone has any thoughts, other services, suggestions or otherwise shoot me an email at jesskateo@gmail.com or leave a comment.

Many thanks.

Upward Trends: The Brunch Pop-Up

There have been several awful trends that have come out of the last few years. The return of 80s neon. High-waisted pants. Large, square glasses frames. Denim hot pants. The food world has had better luck with trends in the same time period including kale, local foods, slow-food, brussels sprouts. Obviously my personal favorite trend has been the rise in brunch offerings.

More specifically, there has been a rise in a certain type of brunch offerings: Pop-ups. What is a pop-up? A pop-up is when a guest chef essentially takes over the kitchen of a restaurant. Chefs serve up what they do best, but with the flexibility to have fun and deviate from what's on their own menu. Pop-ups are run by a spectrum of chefs: catering kings, food-truckers, fine-dining darlings, rising-stars, and old-guard stalwarts.

Some spots in San Francisco have institutionalized pop-ups, by hosting weekly visiting chefs. Pop-up venues you can reliably expect to see a brunch pop-up include:

Dear Mom, which regularly hosts guest chefs for it's Sunday brunch. Frequent favorites include Fogcutter and Seoul Patch Korea.

Dear Mom

The Window SF, soon to be the latest iteration of Coffee Bar, is currently all pop-ups all the time. They serve up brunch Saturday and Sunday. Frequent favorites include Good Foods Catering and Bayou by the Bay.

Good Food Catering at The Window SF

Parada 22, turns into a Haight satellite location for the Mission's famous Boogaloo's brunch on Saturday & Sundays.

Yield Wine Bar, lets BMSF take over its kitchen to serve up Hair of the Dogpatch brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

BMSF at Yield Wine Bar

Here's a few non-brunch San Francisco pop-ups on my radar:

• LihoLiho Yacht Club pop-up is run by Ravi Kapur, formerly executive chef at Prospect.  You can find him serving up a prix-fixe menu at Citizens Band.
• Rice Paper Scissors, bring Vietnamese street food to the streets of San Francisco (sometimes literally to the street). Click through to their website to see where they'll be popping up next.
• HayaHon is serving up Japanese food at the former Mercury Lounge on 12th & Folsom.

Diners & Dives: The Lowbrow Brunch

When I last wrote, I waxed poetic about my love of The Fancy Brunch (TFB). But it's not the end all, be all of brunch. In fact, many of life's greatest surprises are found in diners and dive bars. There's more than a few hole-in-the-wall joints, breakfast focused diners, and (most surprisingly) dive bars that serve up a great brunch on the weekends.

Nova: The low end of lowbrow brunching

In San Francisco, possibly the most brunch inundated city in the world, the lowbrow end of the brunch gamut is filled with a ton of places where you can have a quality brunch without spending much money. What are some of the indicators of a good lowbrow brunch joint?

Price is clearly an issue. If you're paying more than $10 for an entree but having a lowbrow brunch, you've likely wandered into a casual dining purgatory (e.g., a Chili's). I suggest running as fast as you can, unless you enjoy your brunch with a side of screaming baby. Worse, you may have found yourself in a Hipster Hell, which is a place that over charges for shitty food based on the premise that the venue is cool. I would also suggest running. A proper lowbrow brunch shouldn't cost more than $20 per person including drinks and a small plate to start.

Seoul Patch's Brunch Menu

Lowbrow brunches also have a high correlation with ethnic food. Do not fear the lowbrow ethnic brunch: it is a testament to the multi-culture quilt that is American society... And I fucking love lowbrow fusions. The breakfast burrito is only the tip of the cheap ethnic brunch iceberg. In San Francisco you can find lowbrow brunch visionaries such as Punjab, the confusingly named Chinese food restaurant that doesn't serve Indian food but does serve a free mimosa with brunch (and only $2 for each mimosa after), and Seoul Patch Korea, a popup that dishes out Korea street food for brunch at places around the city including Dear Mom in the Mission and The Window in Soma. But I digress, despite their high overlap on a venn diagram, this post isn't about ethnic food or popups.

Full of kitsch: Friendly Toast, Cambridge.

The venue itself should be a great tip off as to weather or not you're having a lowbrow brunch. Are you in a bar? Is someone in the place already drunk? Is the place covered in kitsch? Does it feel like you're eating at a creepy old lady's estate sale? Did you just order from the window of a truck? Those easy questions to ask that will very quickly illuminate the classiness of your brunch.

Diners, the hillbilly cousin to the café, are often home to breakfast, which bodes well for their ability to have a solid brunch offering. In San Francisco, Dottie's is a plastic menu diner and breakfast/brunch mecca -- despite it's claims of being a properly accented café. The pancakes are delicious, the specials are messy, the chairs fairly uncomfortable, and presentation means very little at Dottie's. All that really matters is serving up a good, quality meal for relatively cheap.

And that, friends, is the essence of the lowbrow brunch. It is something to be enjoyed, loved, and most of all experienced. Don't be afraid of finding yourself on the wrong side of the tracks for a delicious brunch.

...Oh, and for the record, my personal favorite lowbrow brunch in San Francisco is hands down Red Door Cafe.

Long Time, No Brunch.

Oh, hello there. It has been awhile, hasn't?

With good reason I've been MIA on the blog, though I've been much better about adding musings and observations to my Twitter (@brunchblog). I was in Zurich, Switzerland for a bit, which is a land where brunch isn't a tradition (though it's starting a scene). Was in Seattle, where I did indeed brunch my heart out, but didn't have a reliable internet connection.

But excuses aside, where have I been in the last month? Some highlights:

15 Romolo Poached Egg Over Duck Hash

15 Romolo Waffle Shot & Bloody Hammer

I've indulged in a Punch Drunk Brunch at 15 Romolo. A longtime favorite watering hole, it's now a favorite brunch spot too. They have a fantastic bar bites menu available every day, and their weekend brunch menu is just as well done. All dishes are bigger than small bites and cost $8-$9 -- one dish makes a meal, but you can have a giant feast for the same price as a single entry anywhere else.


I dived even further into the bar brunch scene at Dear Mom, where a cash-only snafu aside, I had the perfect hangover remedy brunch. I'm pretty sure there was Kraft cheese singles on my breakfast burrito, but it was strangely perfect. I wouldn't take a date, but if you're a hardcore hipster, you'll win cool points coming here on the weekend.

I've also enjoyed the finer things in life at Serpentine, the Dogpatch delight that never disappoints. Between reasonable prices and a well honed menu, it's hard not to leave with a smile on your face. 

Dungeness Crab Benedict

While they don't have the world's greatest dungeness crab benedict, but it's pretty damn good for less than $15. Slightly blander than you expect, the hollandaise doesn't do well competing with the buttery biscuit at the base of the benedict. While the fried lemon rind on top doesn't really do much for flavor, when it comes to presentation it's incredibly pleasing to see with the friend capers.

Banana Pineapple Pancake

Serpentine's pancakes on the other hand, actually can claim to be some of the best in San Francisco. If you leave without sharing a $5 banana walnut pancake as an appetizer or dessert, we're not friends.

The breakfast sandwich my friend had was also one of the better in the city -- so simple, yet so delicious.

And the most unexpectedly delightful dish was the biscuits & gravy -- Serpentine isn't a southern joint, but they do it justice.

Serpentine Biscuits & Gravy

Those were just a few highlights, I'll try to catch up a bit more this week... Having not been to brunch in two weeks (come the weekend, at least), I'm starting to suffer from withdrawal symptoms.

Restaurant Info:
15 Romolo
15 Romolo Place, San Francisco, CA 94133
Brunch: Saturday & Sunday, 11am-3pm

Dear Mom

2700 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

Brunch: Sunday, 11am-5pm

Serpentine

2495 3rd Street  San Francisco, CA 94107

Brunch: Saturday & Sunday 10am - 2:30pm