Upon entering Porterhouse Grill, brunch may not be the first thing that pops into your head by observing the interior. A large, elongated bar with wooden stools greets you at the front of the restaurant with stacks of bottles shelved behind it. The aroma of freshly made biscuits coming out of the oven drifts through the restaurant as chefs prepare for the incoming brunch rush.

When it comes to a home cooked meal, Athens residents don’t have to travel far to satisfy their taste buds. The Classic City serves as a food utopia for visitors looking to indulge in Southern-style cuisine. With hundreds of restaurants offering almost every type of food known to man, finding a spot that caters to even the pickiest of eaters is no hard task.

This is especially true for foodies who live for attending brunch every weekend. If you have been under a rock for the past 90 years and have not been subjected to heavily filtered Instagram photos of French toast and omelets, brunch is essentially a mixture between brunch and lunch. Several eateries throughout the bustling college town offer brunch menus on the weekends, including Porterhouse Grill and South Kitchen + Bar..

“We started offering brunch shortly after we opened and it started out as a way to utilize all the ingredients we had,” said Shawn Butcher, the general manager of Porterhouse Grill.

Butcher also said that the original brunch buffet meal cost $10.95 per person, but as the restaurant became more popular, the buffet options – and the price – expanded.

Porterhouse Grill opened 17 years ago on Broad Street in Downtown Athens and serves brunch every Sunday from 11:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.

“Seven or eight years ago, there was an article in the Red & Black and the Athens Banner-Herald talking about what a great value our brunch was and it exploded from there,” Butcher added.

What began as a small buffet featuring basic breakfast options grew to be what it is today with items such as fresh fruit, pancakes, biscuits, gravy and even cheesecake. Yes, cheesecake for breakfast.

 

The current price of the brunch buffet is $16.95 for regular customers and $12 for customers who work in the service industry.

Butcher said the reduced price for service industry workers was implemented to give back to people who work in restaurants and hotels around town.

While busy college students and young professionals in Athens might not make time for breakfast, on weekend mornings, having the time to linger over brunch is something they appreciate.

While a 2012 survey from the National Center for Health Statistics showed only 68 percent of young adults reporting that they ate breakfast regularly, a recent online survey conducted through Google Forms  on Facebook showed that out of 249 Athens young adults, roughly half reported that they eat breakfast daily.

 

The online survey also showed 18 percent reporting that they eat brunch every weekend.

 

One of the survey participants was Hailey Thomakins, a second year accounting major at the University of Georgia.

“Unfortunately, I don’t wake up early enough to eat breakfast before class every morning,” Thomakins said. “But I do go to brunch every Sunday with my family after church.”

Thomakins said she and her family do not always go to the same restaurant but South Kitchen + Bar is one of her favorite places.

“I usually get the vegetable omelet when I go to South,” Thomakins said. “It’s only $8 and it comes with cheese grits and a small salad. Seriously, you can’t beat the price.”

The vegetable omelet comes with zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms and most importantly, Vidalia onions because nothing is truly a Georgia dish without the Southern essential.

According to Zac Bennett, the general manager for South Kitchen + Bar, the average total number of people who come in for brunch every weekend is between 300 and 400.

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“This is a college town so we get a lot of college students and young professionals that come here,” Bennett said.

South Kitchen + Bar, which is located in the historic Georgian Hotel Building, was built in 1908, resulting in a variety of different businesses preceding it. In turn, Bennett also mentioned that many people from older generations come to look at the restaurant and reminisce about what it used to be when they were younger.

When asked about the potential competition between South Kitchen + Bar and other larger chains that serve breakfast all day, Bennett said he doesn’t feel like there is any “direct competition.”

“We offer a much different service whereas everything here is fresh made food and nothing is coming in from a truck or frozen,” Bennett said. “We even make our own ranch. People come here for the experience rather than just to get a waffle and eggs.”

 

 

Douglas resident, Jerrell Bailey, said that she, her friends and family are “foodies” who know good food, making South Kitchen + Bar a good contender.

“We loved everything about South Kitchen + Bar,” Bailey said. “Both the food and drinks were amazing, service was phenomenal and prices were very much in line with quality and quantity.”

No discussion of brunch in Athens is complete without the presence of Mama’s Boy’s Pancake Tuesdays and hearty egg scramblers.

Hungry visitors crowd into the cozy restaurant located in northeast Athens, anxiously awaiting the comfort food sizzling in the kitchen. Plates including breakfast tacos filled with eggs and beans, and Georgia peach French toast topped with powdered sugar are just a few of the treats patrons can enjoy.

Julia Andrejczuk, a third year student at the University of Georgia said she has been to Mama’s Boy on several occasions.

 

 

“The food is great and the coffee is even better,” Andrejczuk said. “The line is usually out the door since it’s a staple of Athens but overall it’s a great experience every time I’ve been there.”

When asked about her favorite dish from the menu, the answer came almost immediately: the vegetable and egg scrambler. Equipped with enough nutrients to make up for the vegetables you refused to eat at the dinner table as a kid, the meal comes scrambled with fresh spinach, onions, goat cheese, tomatoes and of course two eggs to seal the deal on your palette.

While many Athens locals are accustomed to the popularity of the brunch-style cuisines that Mama’s Boy is known for, other visitors to the historic town were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food served.

Cindy Perelman, a Gainesville, Florida resident who stopped in Athens for a tennis match between the University of Georgia and the University of Florida, heard about the restaurant from someone who mentioned “cathead biscuits” were served there.

Thankfully, the use of feline body parts is not actually used in these biscuits, although that would be an interesting case for PETA. The name “cathead” comes from the fact that the biscuits are roughly the same size as a cat’s head.

“I’d never heard of them, but they sounded intriguing once he explained what they were,” Perelman said. “I arrived and there was a line, but, lucky for me, there was a seat at the counter.  The service was excellent and the food, including the coffee, was scrumptious.”