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At BinWise, we spend a lot of time talking about bars and restaurants. While both bars and restaurants are often hosting brunch, neither are the ideal location for the brunch meal.
Everything about the idea of “What is brunch?” calls for a unique type of location. Specifically, a café location (see: cost to open a café). The brunch café location is always the perfect spot for a Sunday morning midday treat. It can even be the right place to celebrate National Cocktail Day.
A brunch café can be any sort of café. There are many types of cafés. As a café owner, as long as you have ample seating, a clean bar equipment layout, knowledge you've applied for how to get a liquor license, and a good brunch menu, you can host brunch. That said, there are some types of cafés that are best suited for brunch. Those include:
- Sidewalk cafés
- Coffee shops
- Tea houses
- Hotel lounges
- Hole-in-the-wall spots
- Destination locations
- Rooftop spots with great gin brands
- Pop-up locations
These types of establishments are somewhat casual, which fits perfectly with the relaxed vibes of a good brunch. It doesn’t take too much to make a good brunch location, because brunch is meant to be easygoing.
That said, there are things any café can do to make brunch their own specialty. From fully utilizing your space to coming up with creative brunch ideas, there’s so much you can do to perfect your brunch game.
Brunch Spots
Creating a great brunch spot is both in and out of your control. Some brunch spots are great simply based on their geographical location. Unfortunately, you won’t always have control over the perfect location.
However, you can always look to places like the best bar locations and places with a growing brunch market to find the right spot. If you’re at the beginning of your plan to open a brunch café, then you’ve got the time to strategically pick a location.
If, however, you’re already an established bar, there are ideas you can implement to make your brunch spot the best it can be. A few ideas of brunch restaurant marketing plans, design changes, and more include:
- Sharing your brunch spot on social media, to reach the right crowds.
- Making furniture and design choices that fit the aesthetic you want.
- Using paid advertising, both traditional and digital, to spread the word about your spot.
All of these factors, as well as those you may discover along the way, will make your brunch spot the best it can be.
Brunch Ideas
Beyond setting up the visual style of your spot, there are other actions you can take to make your brunch café great. Much like happy hour deals or drink specials, special marketing and bar promotion ideas for your brunch spot will make it the place to be.
Your brunch promotions can be anything you want them to be. You can stick with classic deals like BOGO drinks, half-price dishes (from an appetizer list), or group coupons. You can mix it up and make themed events with deals to be won. Any plans that will boost your profits and make your brunch place even better is a good idea.
Some ideas to start off with include:
- Sunday funday deals with an economical twist on a classic Sunday brunch.
- Raffle events to win bottomless champagne, coffees for a month, or other free drinks.
- Group rates to encourage friends to come out and enjoy brunch together.
- Buffet-style meals with a base price, to pair with your best brunch cocktail drinks.
Of course, there are so many more ideas out there. As you’re planning out your brunch spot, you’ll find things that will work particularly well for you.
Brunch Food Ideas
Even with the best brunch café location, marketing, and promos, without great food you won’t have much of a brunch. There are plenty of options out there for cafe menu ideas.
The mix of breakfast and lunch foods means that you have a lot of variety available in what you can serve up. We won’t take up your time here with the basics, from egg dishes to mini cakes.
Of course, those are important, but they’re recipes you can pick up ingredients for anywhere. For right now, we’ll focus on brunch food ideas that’ll really knock your socks off, and up your brunch style.
Berry Muesli
Berry muesli is a delicious, French-inspired, fruity brunch choice. The website Taste offers up a great recipe for one you can make for yourself and for large groups. The recipe calls for:
- 560g can of lychees in syrup, drained reserving 1/4 cup syrup
- 4 black plums, chopped
- 1 vanilla bean, halved, seeds scraped
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, plus 1 tbsp extra
- 125g fresh raspberries
- 1 1/4 cups Carman's Original Fruit Free Muesli
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 60g butter
- Vanilla ice cream for serving
That may seem like a daunting list, but the instructions Taste outlines make it an easy, delicious option.
Frittatas
That said, if you want something even more simple, yet still surprising, you can’t go wrong with frittatas. A simple recipe from Love & Lemons calls for:
- 6 large eggs, or 8 eggs for a 12-inch skillet
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
On that recipe page you’ll also find a variety of mix-in options for frittatas. The best thing about frittatas is their versatility. It can be as simple or as involved as you like, and you can make something that will work for any brunch patron.
Frequently Asked Questions About Brunch Spots
Looking up frequently asked questions is always an interesting time That includes questions people are looking for when they’re looking at brunch cafés and brunch spots.
Two of the following commonly asked questions address brunch dates. While this often means a romantic date, the answers to these questions will also apply to friend dates and any brunch meetups.
What Kind of Food is Brunch?
Brunch food is a mix between breakfast and lunch. Typically, you can expect to see anything from cereal to mini sandwiches at brunch.
Of course, there are also themed brunches that could focus on all sorts of cakes, fruit themes, or anything at all. The variety of breakfast and lunch options means that brunch options are quite vast.
What Is a Brunch Date?
Of course, when folks hear the term “brunch date” they usually think of a romantic date. Yes, that can be the meaning of a brunch date, but not necessarily. A brunch date is any amount of people meeting up for brunch.
Groups of friends will gather for weekly brunch dates to catch up and relax. Yes, a couple could enjoy a romantic brunch date (brunch cafés can be very romantic). A friend going through a breakup could meet up with a friend over brunch to vent and drink some champagne. When it comes to brunch date options, the sky’s the limit.
What Should I Wear on a Brunch Date?
When it comes to what you should wear on a brunch date, that could certainly depend on the type of date it is. Typically, a brunch date outfit should be comfortable and cute, nothing too fancy but enough to make it feel like you’re doing something special. Whatever that looks like for you will be perfect for brunch.
The Brunch Café: Time for Brunch
There will always be more you can learn about serving up brunch as you grow your business and find your own style. You may even want to look into how to increase restaurant sales to get started with great profits. That said, these lists, tips, and tricks will be a good start. You can always return to the BinWise blog to learn more. Not to mention, BinWise can help you with the inventory side of your brunch spot with our barcode scanner app for inventory.