From BBQ to Boho: a Bevy of New Brunch Options

Nowadays, it's de rigueur for pretty much every restaurant to offer brunch in some capacity. Remember the days when brunch was confined to brunch-specific restaurants? LOL. Chicago has an insatiable appetite for brunch, which probably speaks to our Saturday night drinking habits as well. To meet these needs, more and more restaurants are unveiling brunch menus, and you can hardly hurl a muffin without hitting a brunch queue. The latest crop of brunch destinations could not be more disparate, including a perplexing barbecue restaurant, a Champagne salon, and a French bistro.

Sunday brunch is on deck at Lakeview's Milt's Barbecue for the Perplexed. The name for this kosher barbecue spot is curious, but the brunch selections are obvious winners. Their weekly offerings, served from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., feature a rotating array of specials as well as omelettes, French toast, lox, breakfast sandwiches, and more. For Milt's, brunch is a way to engage the neighborhood earlier in the day, especially as more and more people are out and about through summer. Brunch is ideally enjoyed on their new sidewalk patio.

(Beautiful people like brunch too! Boho brunch at RM Champagne Salon. Photo: RM)

If Champagne, Olsen twin-esque sunglasses, and The New York Times are more in line with your idea of brunch, head to RM Champagne Salon. The Parisian parlor has implemented a sophisticated brunch of its own for the season, dubbed "boho brunch." It's more of a chic afternoon affair than a groggy hangover cure, beginning each Sunday at 1:00 p.m. RM will provide copies of The New York Times, a DJ, and a patio bar, along with plenty of bubbly of course. If this preview video is any indication, croissants and beautiful people are involved as well.

(Croque at Brasserie 54 by LM. Photo: Blast Marketing & PR)

Up in Andersonville, Brasserie 54 by LM recently debuted a Saturday brunch menu, enabling customers to punctuate their week with pain perdu and monte cristo sandwiches. The menu is now served from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, featuring the fairly typical gamut of French bistro fare, albeit with interesting additions. There's an omelette with duck rillettes, a Benedict with country pâté, and an entire section devoted to croques. Of course, you could go for the commonplace croque monsieur, but there's also a croque vegetarian and croque poisson. For an additional $2, guests can add an egg to their croque to make it a croque madame. Do that.