Jaunted - Tag: Brunch

Los Angeles: Red Velvet Pancakes and More at LA's Larchmont Bungalow

Heidi Atwal — 2009-10-26T15:47:47-05:00

Red Velvet Pancakes at the newly opened Larchmont Bungalow.

The scene on Los Angeles' Larchmont Boulevard yesterday morning was a zoo, literally. The Annual Street Fair brought out families in droves, with a petting zoo, pony ride station, rock climbing wall, and other carnival-esque activities to regale locals and their overstimulated, hopped-up on cotton candy kids.

Larchmont is a quaint pocket of LA, "neighborhood-y" in the best possible way. This is the street where everyone really does know your name, lined with a mixture of small, independently-owned boutiques and restaurants and a few chains, too. The requisite Pinkberry and Coffee Bean are alive and kicking, rest assured. This weekend, a new restaurant called the Larchmont Bungalow joined the street's business brood, and we decided to duck past the sponge throwing station to sample their brunch menu.

San Diego: San Diego's Hash House A Go Go Serves A Food Coma With Brunch

Jennifer Kester — 2009-09-02T14:36:29-05:00

Unfortunately, the cell phone isn't included; it's there to show how ginormous the flapjack is.

Head down to San Diego's Hash House a Go Go on a weekend, and you'll see a bunch of starving and hungover folks waiting outside, eager to get in the restaurant for some hearty home-style eats. That's just the way it is and how it will always be at this famous weekend brunch restaurant. Our tip: Avoid the long wait by heading to the Hillcrest eatery during the week. That way you won't have to wait more than an hour to stuff yourself silly with brunch dishes so large you'll have to either share them or risk a food coma for the rest of the day.

Hash House a Go Go, a mix of city and country with metal chairs, old farm photos, and paraphernalia on the walls, churns out food as fun as its name. Of course, you can't go wrong with the namesake house hashes, like the ground turkey with hardwood-smoked bacon, onion and smoked mozzarella or the meatloaf with roasted red peppers, fresh spinach and smoked mozz. But the bigger-than-your-face pancakes are too hard to pass up.

Chicago: Eggs Benedict And Olafur Eliasson At Chicago's MCA

JetSetCD — 2009-07-27T12:19:25-05:00

We luckily escaped New York City this last weekend for Chicago, just missing tornado warnings, hail, and the threat of having to stay inside for two days. Instead, on the lakefront here in Chi-town, we found a paradise of sun, brunch, and modern art. More specifically, we made a bee-line for Sunday brunch on the terrace at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which currently has an exhibition of Olafur Eliasson's works.

Olafur, in case you missed his waterfalls on the East River last summer in NYC, is something of a large-scale, light-and-color genius, and so pairing his 360-degree light room, prism hallway, and misting waterfall with eggs benedict is our highest recommendation for summer brunching in the city.

The exhibit, entitled "Take Your Time," spans fifteen years of Olafur's art, utilizing his architectural, engineering and lighting skills for constructions which, "at once eccentric and highly geometric, use multicolored washes, focused projections of light, mirrors, and natural elements such as water, stone, and moss to shift the viewer's perception of place and self, foregrounding the sensory experience of each work." It'll be on display at the MCA until September 13, and is way better than the waterfalls in our humble opinion.

San Francisco: A San Francisco Sunday Our Stomach Can Handle

BS — 2009-07-16T17:20:39-05:00

Obviously, we love doing weekend jet-set trips across country, but there’s one aspect that’s consistently disappointing: Sundays—they’re so perfect when you’re at home, but so frustrating when you’re on the road.

No matter how good Friday and Saturday are, the Sunday portion of our trip inevitably goes something like this: we wake up tired and hungover from too much Fri/Sat fun, but feel guilty about wasting a day of such a short vacation, so we end up leaving the hotel hottub, begrudgingly fitting in some last tourist sites when we’d much rather be back at the bar eating a second brunch, mentally preparing ourselves for what is surely going to be a too-crowded flight home.

So we’re always on the lookouts for simple Sundays—vacation activities that make us feel active but require the very least amount of effort.

New York: Gourmet Gluttony On A Recession Budget at Perry St

JetSetCD — 2009-03-25T13:51:54-05:00

So while we've already covered the best recession-friendly brunch in New York in terms of freeflowing booze, what about the flip-side: satisfying food that just keeps on coming? Finally, we have an answer, and it's as delicious and high-falutin' as it is surprisingly wallet-conscious.

Deep down in the West Village and on the western border of Manhattan, which is to say the Hudson River, sits star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Perry St restaurant, somewhat small and removed if you consider his other big tables like Mercer Kitchen and Spice Market. In any case, the recession strikes again with extended prix fixe menu options across the board at his restaurant, meaning that for once, we were impervious to Perry St's pricing.

Philadelphia: A Retro Diner Brunch in Philly? Better Make It a Double

JetSetCD — 2009-03-18T12:46:42-05:00

Sometimes, we just want a good stiff drink with our omelet--oh wait, that's all the time. In the arena of alcohol and egg whites, there is one revamped classic corner dinner which does not disappoint: The Continental on Market Street in the Olde City. Back when we somehow managed to spend a weekend in Philadelphia for under $100, The Continental drew us in with its homespun good looks, kitschy olive-on-a-toothpick lamps, and retro airline lounge theme.

New York: French Toast, Champagne, and Rosé-filled Flamingo Bongs: Brunch Gets Naughty in Manhattan

Victor Ozols — 2009-03-14T12:23:38-05:00

I'm a huge fan of breakfast, but for some reason, brunch has never done it for me. It just seems like such a wishy-washy compromise between breakfast and lunch, where neither an omelet or a salad seems quite right, and the brief euphoria of the Bellini that's included in the prix fixe soon gives way to a sense of exhaustion that lasts the rest of the day. But maybe I'm just not doing it right. The New York Times has a pretty wild story today about the rise of brunch as an intense daytime party for New York's beautiful people. In other words, my problem isn't drinking that one Bellini, it's not drinking five more.