Eat Your Heart Out
By Thomas Morrone, CFP®, CPA
There is no secret about my love for food (and wine for that matter). It does not matter what the meal, time of day, venue, cuisine or time of year, put food nearby and I will eat. When not consuming food at home, having dinner in a restaurant is what we do most often when comparing the options covering the three squares a day. Lunch falls in second place though I do love a good lunch. From a frequency standpoint, going out for breakfast is what we do least. Breakfast at a restaurant seems to occur more so if we are traveling or on some type of getaway. Finally, sprinkle in a brunch or two along the way and that rounds the frequencies for eating the various meals at restaurants. If I were to ask for a survey, I would go out on a limb and say this may be a very common situation. Dinner being the meal that is most often at a restaurant, followed by lunch and then breakfast and a brunch here and there. That all being said, I do know of some people that go out for breakfast almost every single day.
So, let’s talk about brunch for a minute. That happy combination of breakfast/lunch/dinner items. What’s not to love? There are brunches and then there are “brunches”. Many restaurants you order brunch from the menu that seem to favor the breakfast selection with some hints of luncheon items. Other restaurants offer the buffet style with trays of eggs, home fries, bacon, some salads and some chicken and call it a brunch. Nope, not for me. What excites me is when the restaurant offers different stations. That is cool. Carving station over here. Raw bar over there. Pasta station over here. Omelets made to order in the corner next to the fresh waffles with all the toppings. Other dinner options with all the fixings next to the raw bar. Of course, there are the breakfast items and cold salads as well. I don’t waste my time in those sections. Finally, there is the dessert station. Now we are talking about the real deal brunch. Whenever we go to this type of brunch, I am patient and eat strategically. There will be no dinner tonight so this is it.
Recently we went for such a brunch with our friends Bill and Tracey. Patient we were and strategically eat we did. We sat at our table a little before noon and in between nonstop conversation and trips back to the various food stations, two and a half hours went by in a flash. The food was fabulous, the venue pristine and the view of Long Island Sound in Westbrook was beautiful. Not being able to consume another morsel of food, we decided to move to the patio and relax for a little while with a cocktail. So, the conversation continued outside. It was a little chilly on the patio, but we had jackets and settled in. We bounced from topic to topic, and the laughter eruptions seemed to occur after every other sentence. We all shared some type of story or another about what was going on in our lives or just whatever we felt like talking about. We then realized that it was now 5:00 and how did 5 hours go by?
It was a great time and I now have a rekindled appreciation for a good brunch. As we were walking to our cars and saying our goodbyes, we laughed again at how long we were at the restaurant between brunch and cocktails. I jokingly said, does anybody want to stop for a bite to eat on the way home?
Bill looked at me for a brief second……….
Until the Next Tom’s Take…
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