Brunch Time: Eight Picks For Saturday Brunch

By Amy Cavanaugh in Food on Jun 30, 2012 3:00PM

Sunday brunches with friends and Bloody Marys are a weekend tradition, but lines out the door at many restaurants often keep us at home making our own hybrid meal. But many restaurants in Chicago offer brunch on Saturday as well, making it easy to slough off last night’s drinking with fancy eggs and doughnuts. We polled the staff about some of their favorites, so read this post then shut the computer and get eating.

• Mindy’s Hot Chocolate: Mindy Segal recently renovated her Bucktown restaurant, which kills it with desserts. The pastry focus extends to brunch as well, where you can find dishes like airy, sugar-encrusted doughnuts with house-made raspberry preserves. The savory dishes are no slouch either, with ham and grits, lamb scrambled with veggies and cheese, and mac and cheese.

• Bakin' & Eggs: The words “flight of bacon” alone should have you going to this Lakeview spot. The dish in question offers five flavors of bacon, including our favorite—jalapeno. You’ll also find a solid breakfast burrito, banana bread French toast, and some excellent granola pancakes.

• Mercadito: The Mexican restaurant adds breakfast fare to its line-up of tacos and guacamoles with huevos rancheros and pancakes with cinnamon butter. We also like the idea of family-style brunch, especially if you have friends with similar taste—three dishes for the table costs $13.50 per person. If you each order a cocktail, it’s $19.50 apiece.

• Letizia’s Fiore: The Logan Square restaurant offers Italian takes on breakfast, with a sandwich of scrambled eggs and smoked mozzarella, a rotating selection of arancini and calzones, and treats from the bakery.

• Three Aces: The Little Italy restaurant and bar is a favorite all the time, but especially for brunch, when you can order biscuits with smoked honey butter, pizza with sausage gravy and eggs, and bacon made in house.

• The Publican: The Publican subtly twists some of its dinner dishes for brunch. There’s a farm chicken with sausage and hash browns, frites with fried eggs, and steak with eggs and vegetables. There’s also a half East Coast/half West Coast oyster selection, and a mimosa made with Belgian beer and orange juice.

• Nightwood: The brunch menu changes each week, but you’ll find dishes like blueberry and cream cheese doughnut, eggs scrambled with goat cheese and herbs, and a smoked trout bagel sandwich among the offerings.

• Nana Organic: The all-organic menu boasts dishes like the Nanadict, with poached eggs, chorizo, pupusas, poblano cream, and home fries, and biscuits and duck gravy, with two eggs atop smoked cheddar biscuits, duck gravy, spring onions, and market vegetables.