The Genius of the Weekday Brunch
Who said you can only eat brunch on Sundays? (Not me.)
Who said brunch was only a Sunday thing?
Not Samantha Moore, owner (and former New Yorker) of Smith & Kings in Chinatown on Oʻahu.
The gastropub, which originally opened on the corner of Smith and King streets (hence the name) in 2015, used to serve brunch on Fridays. I know this because we would walk nearly a mile from our Downtown office to eat there, daydreaming all morning about poutine, buttermilk chicken and Belgian waffles and all the mimosas we probably shouldn’t drink before heading back to work.
But like with many Honolulu restaurants around the pandemic, Smith & Kings shuttered temporarily. And when it reopened, brunch was relegated to the weekends.
Until recently, when Moore decided to resurrect the concept of a weekday brunch.
The origins of brunch are hazy at best. The first mention in print of the word “brunch” — the clever combination of “breakfast” and “lunch” — was in Hunter’s Weekly in 1895, when British author Guy Beringer suggested an alternative, post-church meal on Sunday. “Brunch is cheerful, social and inciting,” he wrote, as published in a 2011 article in Smithsonian Magazine. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”
I could use this on a Monday. Or even a Thursday.
But typically the languid, lavish brunch has been relegated to Sundays, when people have more time to sip mimosas and recover from decadent dishes like stuffed French toast and chicken and waffles.
But sometimes I want to eat a hearty eggs Benedict or a platter of lemon ricotta pancakes on a Tuesday afternoon.
“Brunch is cheerful, social and inciting. It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” — British author Guy Beringer in 1895
This is why restaurants like Koko Head Café in Kaimukī — which uses the hashtag #brunchallday — and Over Easy in Kailua are so popular. You want cornflake-crusted sweet bread toast paired with Frosted Flakes gelato? Or thick-cut French bread stuffed with tomato jam and covered in a potato purée and bacon? And it’s not Sunday?
Problem solved.
In August 2021 the much-anticipated restaurant by chef Anthony Rush and Katherine Nomura Podmore opened — and, praise be, serves brunch Wednesday through Sunday. But this is a destination brunch; you won’t find plain hotcakes and eggs with bacon on the menu here. Instead, you’ll be fine-dining on confit duck sandwiches with pear chutney and crab tostadas dotted with explosive (in flavor) finger limes. Brunch cocktails, like its house Bloody Mary, start at $15. (The popular and Instagram-worthy Chung Chow, its take on a Pimm’s cup, is $30.)
Too fancy?
We got you.
Smith & Kings offers more traditional — if not less pricey — brunch fare, including a crispy pork belly Benedict, omelets and a brunch burger with housemade bacon jam and an egg.
My takeaway? Don’t wait for Sunday to have brunch. You don’t have to. Indulge when you feel like it. And if that’s after a grueling Wednesday morning meeting that went nowhere, so be it.
I won’t judge you.
In fact, I might join you.
Smith & Kings, 69 N King St., Honolulu, thesmithandkings.com, @smithandkings
