A Friday Chat About Brunch

Photo credit: Janine, CC BY 2.0.

NICOLE: Happy Friday!

TIME.TURNER: Happy Thursday! Soon to be Friday. 😁

NICOLE: Well, we pretend it’s Friday. What’s on your slate for this weekend?

TIME.TURNER: Not much, I need to make some plans. My friend’s parents are celebrating her birthday by taking her and her friends to brunch, so looking forward to that. This will be my third weekend in a row having brunch, and I feel very Millennial saying it, but brunch is amazing.

NICOLE: Hahaha I generally have the opposite reaction to brunch, so I’m curious why you (and so many people) love it. Is it the food? The company? The time of day?

TIME.TURNER: All three! For food, it’s sweet and savory, and can be as complex or simple as you want. And it’s an easy way to be social on weekend mornings when people generally don’t have lots of other commitments.

What don’t you like about brunch?

NICOLE: So… I’m an early breakfaster, which means an actual “brunch” time for me would be 9 a.m. Most brunches are scheduled way later than that, and there was this period of time where I was dating this guy who really liked brunch… but since we would skip breakfast on brunch days and not make it to the restaurant until noonish, it would be like I skipped two meals. At that point I would be so hungry I would overeat, and since brunch food is often greasy, I’d spend the rest of the afternoon feeling gross and/or spending the time on the toilet.

Now when people say brunch I have a light breakfast at like 7 a.m. and it’s a way better experience.

TIME.TURNER: Ah, see, I am a breakfast minimalist (all I had today was coffee and a banana) so by 11:30 am I am ready for a full meal.

NICOLE: What do you usually order? Brunch food is still often too greasy for my taste.

TIME.TURNER: The last one I went to was a potluck, so I got to have a little bit of everything! But I really like combining sweet and savory, so I look for something like pancakes with bacon or a monte cristo. And since brunch is so social, you can talk a lot and eat really slowly so you don’t give yourself a stomachache.

NICOLE: True true! Do you have a budget for brunch? Does it just go into “restaurants?” What happens if you hit the end of your budget and someone says “let’s do brunch?” (These are all questions I don’t have perfect answers for, so I’m always curious how other people handle them!)

TIME.TURNER: I would put it into restaurants. I’m still figuring out my new budget since I’ve moved, but I’m hoping I can stick to $200 per month for groceries and $100 per month for “fun money” (including restaurants).

But if I’m at the end of my budget, I would invite them over and make something! I can usually make french toast or pancakes and eggs with ingredients I already have, and I can buy some fresh fruit or something to make it special out of my grocery budget.

NICOLE: That sounds delightful. Also, $100 for fun money and restaurants sounds like it would last me three meals; how far do you think you’ll make it stretch?

TIME.TURNER: There are some food trucks at a park near my place, so I can get a bahn mi for $8, or a fancy dessert for $5. And I like to spend time outdoors, so I can usually make that free, or almost free, and end the day/activity with a treat.

NICOLE: That sounds like so much fun. I love parks. ❤️

TIME.TURNER: Yes, parks. ❤️ And public transportation. Two very important resources for living in a city and not going broke.

NICOLE: I absolutely agree. And on that note, I’ll wish you a happy Thursday and a happy Pretend Friday! Have fun at brunch!

TIME.TURNER: Thank you! Have a great weekend!

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.