For some, brunch is just a meal for when you’ve overslept past breakfast, and are hungry before an appropriate lunch time. For others, brunch is just an excuse for old girlfriends to get together. But for Austinites, brunch is a sport. The weekends in Austin are devoted to trendy people of all different backgrounds, looking to “scope out the best brunch spots.”
Brunch places in Austin are able to create a menu that embodies the two meals, making it socially acceptable for you to have a sandwich, while the person next to you is having an omelet. Take Hillside Farmacy for example, a hip brunch restaurant on East 11th Street. Hillside Farmacy has three menus, “Breakfast”, “Day/Night”, and “Weekend Brunch”. Notice that brunch is not just a part of the breakfast menu. Also, pay close attention to the word “Weekend” embedded in the title of the menu. Where else can you get a fried egg sandwich, raw oysters, pancakes, and a kale caesar salad all on the same menu, other than brunch?
Brunching is not just about the eating, it’s about the experience. If you go to Irene’s on West Ave for brunch, weekends after 10 am, it is inevitable not to see at least one group of people posing in front of the green hedge wall with the word “Irene’s” depicted on it. If you go on Instagram and look at all the photos taken at Irene’s, you will see a large trend of pictures in front of this foliage wall. Walls are not the only thing to take pictures of when brunching. Let’s be real, getting that perfect Snapchat story of your beautiful eggs benedict is well worth the hour wait it took you to get a table. Snooze on Lamar has a whole section of their menu devoted to “The Art of Hollandaise”, and the word “art” is not used lightly here. These meals show up in front of you looking picture perfect, so it would be rude not to take a picture.
Austin is also a city that likes to drink. From serving strictly Austin-brewed beers at restaurants to housing a college campus, alcohol is definitely what puts the “A” in Austin. Brunch is the perfect excuse for Austinites, who are responsible adults over the legal drinking age, to get a nice day drunk for no reason, or to prolong their inevitable hangover. Bangers, on Rainey Street, epitomizes the “day drunk” with their signature “Manmosa” which features an entire bottle of champagne in your mimosa jug.
Whether you’re going for the delicious food, the Snapchat-perfect pictures, or the excuse to get your drink on, brunch is the meal for you. Austin takes brunch very seriously, so make the most of your weekend by experiencing all the great brunching this city has to offer!