Food - Drink - Friends - Put on Your Sunday Best

Suns out, buns out! Cinnamon buns, that is. Or hot-cross buns. Plus muffins, piles of bacon, and the kind of eggy casserole you can make the night before and finish right before company arrives. The promise of brunch is enough to get us out of bed on Sunday morning regardless of what we got up to (or how late we got up to it) on Saturday night. It’s also the perfect way to turn a day of rest into a day with your best friends, eating too much good food and drinking just enough good wine to make it feel like the weekend will last forever.
When it’s your turn to host that most civilized of day-drinking events, knock it out of the park with a few easy hosting hacks.

1. Build A Buffet
It’s the weekend, the last thing you want to do is jump around serving people food and refilling glasses. Make your brunch a DIY affair and trust your guests to handle their own plates so you can relax and enjoy your time. A happy host makes everyone more relaxed.

2. Keep it Simple but Make it Look Hard
Let the tableware do the work for you. A well-set buffet is a thing of beauty, but no one is going to mark you down for store-bought pastries on the muffin tower. Okay, Aunt Gertie might, so maybe lose her invitation? Do what you gotta do, but delegate what you don’t. Fresh cut fruit is a must, but nobody said you had to cut it yourself. Hit your supplier of choice, hide the store containers in the recycling bin, and let your Martha Stewart flag fly with your presentation. When in doubt, add flowers.

3. Think Beyond Bubbles
Sparkling is a solid place to start, especially if you’re making bacon. Bubbles cut through that delicious salty fattiness in such a satisfying way! But don’t stop there – or even stay there for very long. We can send a selection of summery wines your way, including some lighter-bodied reds for those who still give rose and Chardonnay the side eye.

4. Get Into The Spirit
If your crowd leans toward spirits, a Bloody Mary bar (again, DIY for the win!) will be a welcome addition to the scene. Ideally, the drink station will be away from the food to keep the traffic flow open. Again, you don’t need to make your own Bloody Mary mix, but you can class up your mix of choice by serving it in a colorful pitcher. Then, all you need is an assortment of pickled goodies (possibly some cheese and charcuterie) and some long, wooden skewers so folks can add a little “salad”. In addition to the traditional Vodka, offer up a bottle of Tequila for Bloody Marias or a little Irish Whiskey for a Bloody Molly.

5. Have Fun
Seems obvious, I know. If you’re not having fun, you’re doing brunch wrong. Invite fun people, serve food you enjoy (whether you made it or not) and pour excellent wine. That’s all there is to it!