Eat out often enough and even your favorite place or meal can start to feel a little tired. Still, no one wants to give up brunch, so we’ve got 10 dishes to spice up your brunch experience, and a few of them are likely in places you already frequent.
Kitchen 324. The double-smoked pastrami and scrambled egg sandwich is a mash-up of childhood comfort food – warm egg sandwich – with grown up flavors like pastrami and spicy mayo. It comes with avocado (some people like that), but you can take the avocado off and go full comfort food mode if you prefer.
Frida Southwest. It’s on the menu as Croissant French Toast, but it’s impossible not to think of it as horchata French toast. Yes, Chef Quinn Carroll decided to use horchata cream and ancho chocolate ganache to turn a standard brunch dish into a remarkable journey that you should just really order for the table.
McClintock Saloon & Chop House. Somehow this remains almost a “hidden gem” for brunch. The Stockyard chop house deserves much more love than it gets, and the brunch is excellent, including the Vaquero Benedict. Chorizo queso, salsa and poached eggs are loaded onto a biscuit and then served with hash browns – the second greatest form of potato behind tater tots (and McClintock has those too if you want a sub) – for a spicy, filling, Southwestern feast.
La Baguette Bistro. Chef Alain Buthion is one of our city’s greatest talents, and the bistro on N. May has been serving delicious breakfast and brunch for decades. Whoever was the first to blacken avocados, though, is a bit of a genius, and Chef Alain serves them with grilled shrimp and his silky Hollandaise on toast on a dish called St. Charles Eggs.
Social Deck & Dining. The baked eggs are a riff on shakshuka with a little lamb kofta served because owner Jordan Winteroth loves lamb and has a stellar recipe. The dish is served piping hot in a cast iron skillet, and you’ll need the bread to soak up the delicious plum tomato sauce.
Neon. The newest addition to Plaza District from Rachel Cope’s 84 Hospitality, Neon is a coffee shop with some excellent food options. The Fitzgerald is likely the best coffee drink in the city now, and the ham and havarti sandwich on a donut bun makes the perfect accompaniment. Might as well have a chocolate-cream-filled donut while you’re there.
Pizzeria Gusto. We keep saying that their brunch is one of the best in the city because it keeps being true. They don’t just make great pizza; they make great everything. The pesto scramble is fluffy scrambled eggs with house-made basil pesto, spicy grilled capicola, and roasted cherry tomatoes: simple, flavorful, wonderful.
Scratch Paseo. Chef Zach Hutton is the best chef you haven’t heard of yet. His food is creative, delicious and beautifully served. The kimchi hash at brunch features Korean red pepper Hollandaise with two eggs however you want them. The kimchi is house made, and the dish is gluten free.
En Croute. There is something deeply comforting about the food En Croute serves, and the mushrooms with truffle on toast is perhaps the best example of this. Earthy, creamy mushrooms are served with the perfect amount of truffle and topped with a fried egg and Pecorino Romano. It’s borderline decadent, but at the same time rustic and satisfying.
Cafe Antigua. Machaca is a traditional Latin American dish made from dehydrated meat that is rehydrated and shredded. Antigua adds the shredded beef to a three-egg omelet and then serves it with refried black beans and potatoes. Ask for a side of salsa cobanera to spice it up.
