Gone are the days when brunch was reserved for Mother’s Day or Easter — a once-a-year affair, typically an elaborate buffet at a hotel or country club. When I was a teenager, our family liked the Sunday brunch at the Ramada Inn at U.S. 41 and Lynch Road, with the Red Wick Orchestra playing around the indoor pool in the atrium. It was quite popular. Even today, New Harmony’s Red Geranium Restaurant remains a lovely, and very popular, choice when the holidays roll around. (And the scenic drive ensures you are in the spirit upon your arrival at this quaint town.)
But brunch has evolved. It’s no longer confined to white tablecloths and special occasions. Today, you can find and savor brunch almost anywhere, from fine dining establishments to neighborhood bars and taverns. In the feature story, “Let There Be Brunch,” Managing Editor Jodi Keen and Creative Director Laura Mathis curate a collection of brunch specialties that can be enjoyed in and around Evansville. A restaurant doesn’t have to advertise “brunch,” we learned, to deliver one. It simply needs a little sparkle in the glass — Champagne or mimosas (Bloody Marys work too, of course) — and the perfect mix of sweet and savory, breakfast and lunch. After all, that’s the beauty of the portmanteau itself. Order pancakes and that smashburger, and raise a glass to brunch.
Lunch also has been on my mind — not just normal food noise, but my annual date to host the Social Literary Circle (established in 1901), this year in early March. Members commit to dates to both host and present (we do not read the same book each meeting at SLC; rather, the presenter discusses a book she has read). Meetings are held at lunchtime either in the host’s home or, frequently, in Biaggi’s Wine Room or the Reitz Home Museum’s Carriage House. Last May, I hosted a meeting at Igleheart Gardens — a semi-private estate and childhood home of the late Phyllis Igleheart Kerdasha — with box lunches.
This year, I became more ambitious. My program is about my favorite cookbook writer, the late Laurie Colwin, who is more accurately a kitchen storyteller. I enjoyed her columns in Gourmet magazine in the 1980s and knew she had died too young, in 1992 at age 48. To prepare, I read her books “Home Cooking” and “More Home Cooking.” I also ordered more than a half-dozen copies of Gourmet from 1989 to 1993 hoping to find her original essays. I did find one, a piece on Nantucket cranberry pie in the November 1993 issue, published after her death. After my research, I settled on a simple menu Colwin would approve of: Perfect Poached Chicken Salad; Laurie Colwin’s own Potato Salad; greens, like arugula; bread that I will not bake; and Katharine Hepburn’s brownies.
The stack of Gourmet magazines arrived during January’s snowstorm and provided a great deal of entertainment. The magazines are beautiful — written and designed in a way that looks current today. And the ads! It was a time when life was certainly good on Madison Avenue.
So, here’s to brunch, and lunch! Cheers!
As always, I look forward to hearing from you!
Kristen K. Tucker
Publisher & Editor
Follow Kristen on Instagram @kristenktucker. Email letters to letters@evansvilleliving.com.
