Brunch is a meal that exists because we decided breakfast needed a later start time and a liquor license. This week on Happy Half Hour, hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant are in Oceanside at Toasted Gastrobrunch with chef Alfie Szeprethy and Preston Caffrey of Bebemos Tequila. They talk about the strange and winding history of brunch, from its British origins to its inevitable American evolution into a social event involving eggs, enormous plates of food, and drinking before noon.
On the menu: lobster toast with Maine lobster, avocado, bacon, corn, and truffle; pumpkin pancakes; chilaquiles; a smoked turkey Monte Cristo French toast; and a short rib Benedict that ultimately takes the crown. The Benedict, Alfie argues, is basically the perfect food architecture: a vehicle, a meat, an egg, and a sauce. Add some crispy potatoes and a tequila cocktail, and you’ve pretty much solved brunch.
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