Brunch: Defined

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let's first take a look at what exactly classifies a meal as "brunch".

According to these pillars of the Internet world, "brunch" is:

[Wikipedia] 
... a combination of breakfast and lunch. Brunch is often served after a morning event or prior to an afternoon one, such as a wedding or sporting event. As such, it is a heavy meal meant to take the place of both.

[Urban Dictionary]
... a weekend ritual for twenty-something New Yorkers involving the sharing of the first meal of the day with friends after a night of debauchery. Brunch can occur any time after noon and before 5 p.m. on either Saturday or Sunday and serves as a great way to catch up with friends over moderately priced food as well as bloody marys, mimosas or several glasses of champagne. Post-brunch activities often include napping or drunk shopping.

[Dictinary.com]
–noun
1. a meal that serves as both breakfast and lunch.

–verb (used without object)
2. to eat brunch: They brunch at 11:00 on Sunday.  

After taking a look at those sources, let's pick out a few common traits to make up our own definition of brunch, keeping in mind that New York City is the self-claimed epicenter of the brunch movement. 

[Babes Who Brunch Definition]
Brunch can be seen as a primarily weekend meal incorporating elements of breakfast and lunch in terms of both food and hours. This meal may be eaten at a restaurant or in someone's home, in a group of 2 or more. Alcoholic beverages and pre-fixe menus are common in NYC, and the hours typically range from 11A.M. to 4P.M.

So this means brunch does NOT include bowls of cereal at 2 A.M. or leftover lasagna for a Power Meal before a Monday work day. Brunch is about eating with dear friends, family, loved ones, in a casual fashion.

More importantly, for Babes Who Brunch, we are about good brunch. We are striving to find the stars and hidden gems in New York City, a city that has far too many mediocre brunches around.

Now that we've gotten that cleared up, we can get to the good stuff. Stay tuned for our first brunch post!

Welcome to Babes Who Brunch!

Well hello there, and a Happy New Year as well! We're kicking off 2010 with the launch of our new project, Babes Who Brunch (BWB).

What is Babes Who Brunch all about?

A blog about the "serious business" of brunching in New York City (and, well, anywhere). Dining out, hosting at home, picnicking, we're here to look at all versions of that wonderful weekend in-between known as brunch. The acceptable way to continue debauchery of the evening before into a liquor and caffeine infused celebration of both breakfast and lunch.

When will Babes Who Brunch post?

We'll state this upfront: we're not aiming for a daily post; this is more about documenting brunches out, brunches in, and expounding upon some of the great items that make up brunch. (French toast, mimosas, baaacon, etc.) 

Where are these Babes Who Brunch?

We are located snugly in the vast, brunch-friendly, culinary web of New York City. Any more information than that, and you'll have to follow your nose. 

How will the Babes brunch?

Well, first we'll master how to use forks and knives, then ... Okay, we kid, but really, we're just going to get together to have brunch when it's convenient. New York City usually offers brunch menus on the weekends, but that doesn't mean we can't have individual brunch experiences, educational posts, or brunch parties to write about. Our goal is to do a brunch weekly, but that by no means is a limit.

Who are the minds behind Babes Who Brunch?

This little site all began by some innocent conversation between Emily H and Melissa Z. Both twenty-something food enthusiasts, a discussion about must-eat restaurants in New York, we stumbled upon the realization that both have not dined at The Spotted Pig, a much raved about brunch place from friends who dined there. That in turn led to the "Ah-Hah!" moment of discovering new food exploration buddies, which is all fine and good. But then, Melissa had the idea of turning it into an actual website and well, here we are now. 

How can I be a Babe who Brunches? 

1) Be a babe*
2) Enjoy brunch
3) Contact us through E-mail or comments! 

While Melissa and Emily are the main authors of the site, one of the biggest factors of creating this blog is to bring in fellow babelicious friends to write about brunch experiences. We hope to have a fresh stream of fantastic female writers to add to the site.

*Really, the name is just for alliteration. We are not deluding ourselves with dreams of model-dom, but "Babe" is certainly preferable to the other "B" word, don't you think?