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| The dessert station at the Bacara |
Brunch. It’s what’s for dinner, or technically it’s what is
between when you wake up and dinner. There are all manner of brunches in Santa
Barbara from the Four Seasons Biltmore
in Montecito (traditional station brunch on Sunday, $72 and $35 for kids;
Saturday À
la carte brunch $15 to $28), to scaled back versions like the Canary Hotel near mid State Street
(brunch is Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., À la carte, $10 -
$20) and Stella Mares (Sunday brunch
À la carte menu, $12 to $23) located at the Andree Clark Bird Refugee. But
for those days like Mother’s Day (the mother of all brunch days) you want to
pull out the stops. The brunch at the Bacara
Resort and Spa will fit that bill, and fill you up, all overlooking the Pacific Ocean . Located inside the terrific restaurant
Miro, the Sunday Brunch is a blowout.
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| The organic salads are made to order |
But where did the idea of a half-breakfast, half-lunch idea
originate? We do know that “brunch” was first mentioned in 1895 in a British
magazine called Punch. More than
likely it was a term used for post-drunk reveler food on Sunday morning after a
blitzy Saturday night of hard drinking. Allegedly it was a slang term but it
doesn’t mean that the first iteration of brunch was just a way to pack protein
into your body to offset too much alcohol. But it certainly seems likely. There
is no clear information as to the exact origins, only conjecture. Regardless,
the idea of brunch has been with us for over a hundred years now and certainly
the elements of brunch have become more refined. And these days brunch is
something of a ritual: Easter, Mother’s
Day, Christmas and even New Years
are prime brunch days, or like many people, you have a brunch party at your
house (as I have done for years). Brunches consist of two different
experiences: a traditional sit down restaurant where you order off the menu;
and the station brunch where there will be stations around the restaurant for
dessert, a carving station, another for made to order eggs and omelets, and the
like, and you can eat as much as you want (please don’t make the mistake
however of thinking you need to eat everything – I promise, you won’t feel well
later).
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| Plenty of seafood, well, plenty of everything! |
With a focus on local, seasonal produce, the Bacara brunch
showcases a culinary happy-land highlighting organic produce from local farms at their salad station. And there
are made-to-order omelets and waffles, seafood displays of oysters, crab and huge
shrimp, and sushi. And like with the best brunches, there is prime rib from
their carving station, artisanal cheeses (I’m loving the Humboldt Fog), plenty
of side potato-based dishes, fresh fruit and an entire bagel bar. All this and way
more is set inside the spacious and colorful Miro environment. Oh, and you can
have mimosas or Champagne .
The dessert station includes chocolate-covered lollipops with
pistachio cheesecake inside, to chocolate and strawberry mousse, carrot cakes,
whoopee pies, and pots de crème, all created from scratch by pastry chef Daniel Sampson, who learned
some of the basics from him mother, grandmother and aunt growing up in Nova
Scotia. Personally I love his meringue with fresh whipped cream, passion fruit,
strawberry and kiwi. There are over 25 different desert items to sample. Brunch
is $70 for adults, and $30 for the young ones and has more food than mentioned
here, a virtual food bonanza with something to make everyone satisfied. It’s
best to make reservations at all of these brunch spots, then enjoy and be happy
that you are brunching here in Santa Barbara .
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