As mentioned in last week’s weekend brunch report, Denny’s is in the process of slamming America with free breakfast from 6:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Here’s what you do:
1. Walk into Denny’s.
2. Be prepared to wait because there’s a lot of unemployed, hungry people with all the time in the world to wait.
3. Order a Grand Slam because it’s free.
4. Eat it.
5. Feel slight remorse, but then feel comfortable with your decision.
6. Tip your waitress and GTFO.
If you missed today’s Grand Slam deal, IHOP will be hooking up patrons with a free short stack of pancakes on Feb. 23 for National Pancake Day from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Proud to bring you another exciting installment of user-submitted videos showing Chicago Brunch Blog readers just like you eating breakfast and lunch! Today’s video comes from Justin Cheng of local dreampop band, Panda Riot, eating a bowl of soybeans and listening to Leonard Nimoy cover Seeger on a Saturday morning alone in front of his computer. That’s right, people. This is the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle in full-swing. Thanks Justin!
Winter is here, have you harvested? If not, try saving some of those brunch leftovers for evening hibernation. Today’s Scraps come from Blackbird Chef de Cuisine, Michael Sheerin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blackbird doesn’t “do” brunch, but that doesn’t mean Sheerin can’t whip up some tasty ideas — admittedly for more advanced home cooks.
“I’d have to say that generally brunch is for leftovers. Most restaurants try to make sausage from meat scraps and use left over veggies in quiches. I’ve always thought about a great way to reinvent ‘hash’ would be [with] rye gnocchi, rabbit chorizo and a slow poached egg.”
Was this week as long for you as it was for me? This is what happens when you have a vitamin D deficiency on account of living in a gray winter wasteland. Moving the limelight away from another exciting episode of Carly’s Irrelevant Health Issues, it’s back to focusing on more important issues: brunch. But first, a quick moment of Lost coffee talk: What if Sayid if alive on account of Jacob possessing his body a la evil John Locke? Will parallel world Jack be less annoying than castaway Jack? And why won’t they kill off resident Island ho, Kate? dun dun dun LOST. Stick that on your English muffin and eat it.
Saturday is so close, yet so far away (Photo: Carly Fisher)
Here we are, back in the saddle again with another weekend of plowing through a bottle of aspirin and resorting to the loving embrace of a fluffy omelet. So many brunch spots, so little time. Here is where to brunch this weekend.
User-submitted YouTube videos are the virtual love equivalent of having your name tattooed on someone’s neck. So, please continue to film your intimate moments over breakfast and lunch. Fun activity: position your laptop across from you as you eat lunch and it will almost be like you are never alone! Doing this in public adds extra points.
Today’s video comes from Steve G., who is washing down his lunch with a frosty glass of milk and listening to some sad indie music at a cafe. Thanks, Steve!
An ingrained Midwestern privilege and ultimate brunch benefit is the ability to head out in the remnants of last night’s disaster for a nourishing mid-day meal. But when day turns to night, do you really want to put in the effort to “get it to together” for dinner? Of course not. So, instead of kicking your leftovers to the curb, Big Jones’Executive Chef Paul Fehribachoffers some Southern hospitality on how to salvage scraps:
“Here’s a Southern classic you can make with leftover grits. Almost any other savory leftover from brunch could be added as flavoring, such as chopped up sausage, shrimp, green tomatoes, even chopped up leftover omelets or hash browns. The key is to not use more than 1 cup of add-ins because the spoon bread will become too heavy to poof up well. The more finely chopped the add-ins are, the better the result.
More flavorful add-ins such as bacon or sausage should definitely be used more sparingly. A couple leftover strips of bacon or a sausage patty would be about perfect.”
Fehribach’s recipe for Spoon Bread with Grits after jump.
Having been bed-ridden on-and-off for the past month, unfortunately, brunch this weekend will be a labor of love. I say “unfortunately” because it’s FIVE DEGREES OUTSIDE and now we call all look forward to CTA shut downs. Can’t even have a stiff drink to warm the blood either, thanks to the buzzkill of antibiotics. So, yes, I would like to have some cheese with that whine. You win this time, Chicago.
A bloody shame I can’t drink this! (Photo: Carly Fisher)
Here are some suggestions on where to have brunch this weekend, including where to find me sober, throwing my crayons and sipping on a few Shirley Temples!
P.S. – The Restaurant Directory has been had so many additions and changes, it will blow. your. mind. (or at least find you a new brunch spot).
Yeah, I copped out and didn’t update for a week. What, even? Maybe if everyone would stay home when they’re sick instead of coughing on my face on the El, I wouldn’t have relapsed and suffered in bed for the past 10 days. Totally not resentful at all.
Anyway, today’s user-submitted content comes from a very special guest. Susan Lee-Chun is a performance artist living in Miami Beach, Florida, and also the woman responsible for fostering my growth as an artist and socially awkward teenager. Thank you for letting me take weird photographs of Jesus motifs on refrigerators and suicidal ketchup, for I would not be half the woman I am today. Susan shares an intimate moment of breakfast over a bowl of Frosted Flakes.
Slamming it up at Denny’s (Photo: Carly Fisher)
An ingrained Midwestern privilege and ultimate brunch benefit is the ability to head out in the remnants of last night’s disaster for a nourishing mid-day meal. But when day turns to night, do you really want to put in the effort to “get it to together” for dinner? Of course not. So, instead of kicking your leftovers to the curb, 
A bloody shame I can’t drink this! (Photo: Carly Fisher)
Malted waffles with huckleberries from The Bristol (Photo: Carly Fisher)
