Saved By The Max Replaces Brunch Service With Walk-In Bagged Lunches

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 10, 2016 6:49PM

The Wicker Park Saved By The Bell-themed pop-up Saved By The Max has been attracting long lines of hopefuls wanting to eat there since it opened last week. Despite their dinner service being sold-out through August, throngs of fans still line up at night in hopes of grabbing a table for any no-show reservations. And when we walked by the diner Saturday morning there was already a line down the block for their brunch service at 8:30 a.m., two and a half hours before Saved By The Max even opens on the weekend.

In fact, the brunch rush was so great last weekend that it threatened to start to negatively impact the dinner service. so Friday, Saved By The Max announced that they will be ending brunch. In a statement, organizers said, "due to the overwhelming demand of dinner service, we are going to forego our seated brunch services for the time being. We don't ever want the food quality or service to suffer from the demand and feel it's in everyone's best interest for us to focus on dinner at this time."

It's not all bad news, though. Since this was one of the only chances for walk-in fans to experience the diner, Saved by The Max will be replacing brunch with what they are calling a Bayside Walk-In Bag Lunch Service. On weekends, from 11 a.m. until they run out, the diner will offer prepackaged lunches and allow fans buying them to still snap photos of the pop-up's interior. Saturday's lunches will be Crawfish with Baker Miller Grits, and Sunday will feature Tasso Ham with Baker Miller Grits. Bang Bang Pie and Halfwit Coffee will be included on both days as well.

We ate at Saved By The Max Thursday night, and can see why folks are lining up for hours to get in—the food and the experience are both top-notch. To the organizers' credit, they are focused on the whole experience, so the room is never over-packed during the dinner service. They could easily make more money by cramming in more tables and allowing people waiting to order drinks at the bar, but instead they have opted to make sure that patrons enjoy themselves.

Dropping the brunch service seems to only underscore their devotion the ensuring everything about Saved By The Max ends up being a crowdpleaser.