Ranking the 5 Best Brunch Items

Brunch has become one of America’s pastimes. Every weekend, tens of thousands of Americans leave their homes to wait in line for an hour for food they could make at home, by and large. So what is so appealing about going out to eat for those items? It might be making the most of a Sunday morning, visiting with Grandma after church service at your favorite breakfast place, or getting in a quality meal before NFL Sunday. 

Whether you go out for bottomless brunch in D.C., endless mimosas in Los Angeles, or delicious beignets in New York, brunch has taken the nation by storm coast to coast. Many restaurants have so many breakfast and brunch options that it can be impossible to decide what to order. Do I go sweet or savory this morning? 

In this blog, we do our best to rank the top five brunch items of all time. These are items that are generally found at any brunch restaurant and don’t belong to a sort of niche food categories, such as huevos rancheros or crepes. 

Keep in mind this is a very subjective list, and wrestling a list down to five items is borderline impossible, but we did our best to include some of the most universal brunch items and ideas. These items will be just that: items. These aren’t complete dishes or concoctions based on several different ingredients.

5. Fruit Tray

Fruit is definitely a great way to start your day. It’s healthy, delicious, and can absolutely stand on its own as a meal. A lot of times, you’ll see fruit as an accompaniment to another dish but it definitely doesn’t have to be.

There are so many different types of fruit that there’s something for everyone. Plus, fruit is a great source of vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function properly. So next time you’re looking for something healthy and delicious to eat for breakfast or brunch, make sure to give fruit a try!

4. Bacon 

Come on, essentially everything is better with bacon. Whether you’re adding it to a breakfast sandwich or having it by itself on the side, bacon enhances any brunch plate by adding the salt and grease that can bring you back to life after a fun night of drinking. 

Bacon can also break up the sweetness of your brunch if your main course is pancakes, waffles, or french toast. It can be candied to give a salty and sweet sensation, or crushed to be added to recipes for texture or taste. As one of the most loved and versatile breakfast food items, bacon transcends breakfast and can be utilized at any time of the day without complaint from anyone, especially this author. Honestly, when given a choice between breakfast meats, who doesn’t choose bacon?

3. Beignets 

Okay, so this may be a little niche, but who cares. Beignets are bite-sized treats that provide the right amount of sweetness to your salty brunch plate. Enjoy a spicy and salty egg dish and follow it up with some beignets with flavors of your choice. Whether you use plain powdered sugar, plain in general, or topped with a fruity topping or sauce, beignets are handheld snacks that allow you to have some sweetness without committing to your whole meal being sweet. 

They’re incredibly versatile and come with a slew of different flavors and toppings, and are less intimidating than a tall stack of pancakes or french toast. Beignets are really changing the sweet game as far as brunch goes. 

2. Coffee 

Perhaps the most essential brunch item on the list, coffee is the lifeblood of early-morning risers. Chances are, the line of customers waiting for a table are already loaded with coffee. Not only is coffee widely available at any brunch location, but there are also so many ways to enjoy it: 

• Black 
• With cream and sugar 
• As a warm or cold latte
• As an Irish Coffee 
• As espresso 
• Iced 
• As a unique drink on the specials list 

This is often the first course of any brunch outing. It wakes up your customers, improves their mood, and gets them thinking about the next course pretty quickly. Since brunch often follows a busy Friday or Saturday night, coffee is essential for morning recovery purposes. Coffee is the best way to kick off brunch, and brunch is the best way to kick off the day. 

1. Eggs 

Sorry vegans and vegetarians, coming in at number one is the most versatile and widely used breakfast item in brunch kitchens: the egg. Eggs can be served in so many forms:

• Scrambled (with or without cheese)
• As an omelet 
• Over easy 
• Over medium 
• Medium well 
• Over hard 
• Hard-boiled 
• Sunny-side up 
• Eggs Benedict 
• And more 

They can be served as a simple egg sandwich, as the meal itself as scrambled eggs, or used in various breakfast dishes that are widely popular, such as migas, huevos rancheros, eggs benedict, egg-in-the-whole, or as a topping for things like avocado toast. The yolk of an egg can be used as a topping itself, or it can be scooped up by buttered toast or other breakfast items. Simply put, in the world of brunch, eggs are king. 

Conclusion

Did we leave out your favorite brunch item? Maybe it’s breakfast sausage, toast, pancakes, french toast, hash browns or other potatoes, fruit, or something else. Wherever you are, brunch is waiting. Whether that be at a rooftop brunch in D.C., a small-town coffee shop in Ohio, or even at one of the hundreds of brunch chain restaurants out there, your favorite food items will always be waiting for you. 

The fact is, the list of brunch items goes on forever, and eclipses both breakfast and lunch, so it’s impossible to hammer them down into one list of five items. But based on versatility, popularity, usage, and other factors, we believe we got it right.