buffet (prounounced with the British accent)

The day after we went to Alinea, Nora and I headed over to Wicker Park to have brunch at Thyme Café. We got the bus and the train without a hitch, but when we exited the station we discovered that Milwaukee, Damen, and North all meet in a huge mess, since the street signs don’t really tell you where you’re going. We did eventually find our bearings, and made it to the restaurant without getting too scorched in what would become 100-degree weather. This part of Wicker Park reminds me a little of Allston and Brighton – there are neat places to explore, but it’s slightly dingy (ah, gentrification).

The restaurant is pretty pleasant – they have a brunch buffet, with live music. The music was a little loud, but fun, and a welcome accompaniment to brunch. The food was excellent, and I don’t know why I haven’t been to more brunch buffets. Perhaps I liked this one because it was the first one I’ve been to, and the novelty hasn’t worn off the way it has for dinner buffets. At any rate, there were many good things about it: the scrambled eggs, challah french toast with marmalade, spinach-goat cheese ravioli (an odd choice for brunch, but they were really good), and perfect bacon. Oh, and of course there were desserts: little mini coffeecakes that were soaked with cinnamon sugar syrup, cream puffs whose whipped-cream insides melted in your mouth, and tiny, dense cream cheese brownies. The fruit was sweet and fresh, though the salad was the last thing I wanted to eat at brunch with so many other delectable things to try. A pasta salad with…goat cheese and some sort of vegetable (you can see how memorable this one was) was similarly not compelling.

I can see why restaurants like to do brunches, and like to not do brunches. Brunches bring in money for a range of dishes that’s not very diverse – it’s as if everyone is cooking from the same proverbial cookbook – and if it’s a buffet you don’t have the same service needs. On the flip side, the lack of range bites you in the butt because you can’t be very creative (which is the desire of most chefs, if not all of them). I’m not sure if this is completely true, but it seems that the more posh a restaurant is, the less likely it is to do brunch.