8 Restaurants for Best New Brunch
Many walk among us whose favorite meal of the day is not dinner, nor breakfast, nor lunch. Those ordinary, humdrum meals just don’t compare to the boozy, rich, over-the-top decadence of brunch.
The holiday season is the perfect time of year for gatherings, and what better gathering is there than BRUNCH! If you’re having out-of-town friends and family visit during the upcoming holiday season, consider taking them out for a late breakfast/early lunch at one of the best new brunch restaurants in Fort Worth!
Buenos Dias Breakfast Club
On the heels of its popular supper club events, Magdalena’s Catering & Events is now tackling brunch. Once a month, former Reata chef Juan Rodriguez will create a three- to four-course meal for a limited number of diners at Magdalena’s homebase at 502 Grand Ave. The first event was this past weekend and featured quail egg sopes, a frittata with chorizo, bell peppers, and lemon garlic aioli, tri-tip chilaquiles, and a Mexican chocolate tart. Cost is $40 a person. Sign up for notifications about future events at Magdalenastx.com.
Cane Rosso
Brunch is not a time for restraint, at least at this Near Southside pizza joint, which recently introduced a slew of decadent brunch dishes. Among them is a rendition of chicken and biscuits: fried chicken comes atop a housemade bacon marmalade biscuit, and both get drizzled in habanero maple syrup. The bacon marmalade biscuit also stars in the Cane Rosso Hash, a concoction of bacon, sausage, onions, potatoes, calabrian chiles, sausage gravy, and two fried eggs. On the sweeter side, there’s the Wafflebird, a housemade sweet waffle topped with vanilla mascarpone, Nutella, crushed Speculoos cookies, toasted marshmallows, and powdered sugar. 11 am-3 pm Saturday and Sunday.
Malai Kitchen
New in The Shops at Clearfork, at 5289 Monahans Ave., this posh Vietnamese and Thai restaurant — the third location of husband-and-wife team Braden and Yasmin Wages’ mini-chain — offers brunch items that go beyond the usual waffles and grits. The restaurant’s version of French toast, for instance, is made with the same baguettes used for banh mi sandwiches, which are topped with flambeed bananas and coconut syrup. Hoi an Hash is their version of a frittata, consisting of eggs, crispy noodles, and sausage and topped with a mound of papaya slaw. Boozy drinks include a $5 Bloody Mary with housemade hot sauce and a michelada with Vietnamese Bia Hoy beer and scratch-made Sriracha. 11 am-3 pm Saturday and 10 am-3 pm Sunday.
Max’s Wine Dive
Upscale comfort food spot near West 7th recently introduced several new eats and drinks for brunch. There are sweet potato doughnuts with cinnamon sugar and bourbon caramel, King Cake French toast with cream cheese filling and sour cream icing, and Birthday Cake pancakes — sweet batter pancakes with a buttercream glaze and, of course, sprinkles on top. Also new is a prickly pear mimosa and a build-your-own mimosa bar.
Texas Slim’s BBQ
Fort Worth’s newest barbecue joint, at 2903 West Berry St., next door to the Aardvark club, has a heckuva good Sunday brunch deal: all you can eat for $15. Most of the items are of the breakfast-food variety: omelettes, sausage, French toast, bacon, and ham. But also are a few heavier selections, including chicken fried steak. 12-4 pm Sunday.
Tributary Café
Nestled in a cozy 1940s bungalow at 2813 Race St., on the city’s east side, Cindy Wheeler’s popular seafood spot now serves weekend brunch to early risers. Entrees include a Dirty Benedict, constructed out of dirty rice cakes, sauteed greens, andouille sausage, and a poached egg; grits with ham or shrimp and red-eye gravy; and Swamp on a Shingle, composed of herb mushroom sauce, a boiled egg, bacon crumbles, and peas. It’s Wheeler’s twist on the classic “SOS” dish. 10 am-3 pm Saturday and Sunday.
Trio New American Café
This long-running lunch and dinner spot in Colleyville, run by chef Jason Harper and his wife, Miriam, is known for daredevil takes on American staples. Starting this Saturday, the Harpers will apply the same aesthetic to brunch as they launch their first-ever brunch menu. Items will include pork belly hash with ancho salsa; a green curry Thai chicken noodle soup; Wagyu barbocoa sopes; and a New Orleans benedict comprised of a housemade biscuit smothered in tasso ham, popcorn shrimp, and Creole hollandaise sauce. To drink, there will be bottomless pomegranate mimosas for $7 and an Old Bay seasoning-infused Bloody Mary for $8. 10 am-2 pm Saturday.
Woodshed Smokehouse
The Sunday-only brunch buffet at Tim Love’s isn’t for cheapskates. The $25 price gets you a lot of food, though. Choose from nearly 30 items, many of which are Love’s signature dishes. Among the selections: chopped brisket, fried chicken, wild game sausage, crispy Brussels sprouts with fermented lime vinaigrette, biscuits and gravy, pulled-pork burritos, kale salad, and smoked chocolate pie. Price also includes one free mimosa. 8 am-2 pm Sunday.