A Long-Awaited Brunch At Point Brugge

Achievement: #1. Brunch at 3 New Places

I know I promised our Shear Da Beard entry tonight, but it turns out, we took almost 50 pictures of the process of Brett Keisel’s beard-shaving (and the Donnie Iris appearance after, of course), so I have some editing to do (since we were standing at the back of a huge crowd, moderately full of douchebags with puffy hair) and some weeding-out to do as well (since you can only see so many pictures of James Harrison being an auctioneer). This means the blog will *hopefully* be up tomorrow or Monday at the very latest.

But tonight, I would like to bring to you a more pressing, and pertinent issue: where are you having brunch tomorrow??

We love brunch. LOVE it. The problem, of course, is that we tend to go to the same delicious places over and over. On occasion, we throw in the elaborate and excessive option, or the is it still brunch if it’s noon on a Tuesday meal, or even the there isn’t really brunch but there’s brunch in the title event.

But this year, we wanted to step out into the world of Pittsburgh brunch and take in three new places. Our first stop was last weekend at Point Brugge.

You may recall Point Brugge as the location of one of our dessert critic spots, where we enjoyed an incredibly filling dinner and a heavenly chocolate dessert. But this lovely little spot also serves up Sunday brunch (as does their Highland Park location, Park Bruges), so we decided to give it a try.

Let me just say this: expect a wait if you decide to take in the Point Brugge brunch. If you’ve never been to this restaurant before, it’s cozy and intimate, and late on a Sunday morning, that translates to CROWDED. We were fortunate enough to snag a spot at the bar upon arrival, where we got to watch all sorts of food make its way from kitchen to table as we waited for our own to arrive.

And oh boy, was it worth the wait!!

Point Brugge Brunch
There are a few different ways to enjoy the brunch at Point Brugge. You can pick from their entree list, add things from the a la carte menu as you please, or you can do their prix fixe menu, which allows you to get a brunch entree, a side, and a house brunch cocktail (such as a mimosa or bloody Mary).

Point Brugge Brunch
I had quite a bit of grocery shopping and laundry to complete after brunch, so I skipped the cocktail and just got the rosemary pork scrambler. The name alone let me know everything I needed to know: this dish was full of one of my favorite meats, as well as one of my favorite seasonings. And when they say pork, they mean it. There were huge chunks of bacon and ham throughout this delicious scramble, as well as sundried tomatoes, onions, cheese, and shoestring homefry-like potatoes. We could have clearly split this gigantic plate between us, but it was SO good I wanted to keep it for myself.

Point Brugge Brunch
Michael got the pumpkin French toast entree. Much like my reaction when I hear the word ‘ham,’ Michael finds himself unable to resist sampling dishes that feature pumpkin as a primary ingredient. (True story, he once ate the 61C out of pumpkin muffins. Well, okay, it’s only true because he usually gets there when there’s only one muffin left but… you see what I’m getting at here.)

I tried the pumpkin French toast as well, and I concur: delicious. Ever-so-crispy on the outside, but drenched in a lovely dippy sauce (that’s the technical term for it), and a portion big enough to feed an entire family of rhinos. (Okay, I’m not 100% sure on this, but I wanted a nice example of which animals eat the most pumpkins, so I did some Googling, and rhinos were on that list. I swear. Rhinos are so freaking cute.)

Ahem. Where was I? ::puts away cute animal videos and tries to focus::

Point Brugge Brunch
Since we’re samplers (and long overdue for our next Tapas Anonymous meeting), we added on a side of the potato strudel and sausage. This is where things reached an entirely new level of excessiveness. If I had to do it all over again, I’d skip these side dishes, just because of the sheer amount of food in front of us. The potato strudel was probably my least favorite of the bunch – a little too doughy and not crispy enough for my taste (I LOVE crispy home fries). Still, a good flavor, but I would have liked a little more crunch with it.

Point Brugge Brunch
I would absolutely return to Point Brugge for brunch, especially on a day when I didn’t have a massive to-do list and could enjoy some of their brunch cocktails. They have a number of grapefruit-based breakfast cocktails, and I’d love to try them out, as well as an order of their waffles.

Point Brugge serves brunch each Sunday beginning at 11, and they have a list of specials that changes weekly. Get there early though – they WILL be crowded, and there are no reservations.

Have a suggestion on where our second and third brunch should be? We’d love to hear them!

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