Brunch for Vegans Without Settling for Avocado Toast

Brunch has historically been an animal-product-heavy meal — eggs, bacon, butter, cream, sausage — and the vegan diner has historically been treated as an afterthought. That has changed faster in the last five years than in the previous twenty, and a careful menu reader can now find genuinely great vegan brunch in most American cities. The first place to look is the savory side of the menu. A kitchen that has thought about plant-based diners will usually have a hash, a tofu scramble, a vegetable-forward chilaquiles, or a savory grain bowl that earns its place on the menu rather than apologizing for being there.

If the only vegan option is the fruit plate, that's the kitchen's signal that they haven't done the work. The second place to look is the bread program. Great vegan bread is easy: most baguettes, sourdoughs, and bagels are accidentally vegan. A kitchen with a real bakery on the menu can usually build you a stunning open-face plate in five minutes — toast, marinated tomato, herbs, a smear of cashew cream, a grind of pepper, and you have a dish that beats most cooked entrees.

The third place to look is the global menu. Brunch traditions outside the standard American canon — Vietnamese coffee with banh mi, Mexican breakfast with potato tacos, Ethiopian ful, Indian uttapam — are often plant-forward by default and don't require any modification at all. Pursue them. The fourth move is to ask.

Servers at brunch-heavy kitchens are used to dietary questions and the good ones will steer you firmly. Ask which dishes the kitchen would build for the chef's vegan partner. The answer will usually be more interesting than anything on the printed menu. Finally, tip well.

A kitchen that takes the time to build a thoughtful vegan plate is doing extra work for a smaller margin, and the easiest way to ensure they keep doing it is to thank them with money. Vegan brunch is no longer a compromise. Find the kitchens doing it well and reward them with your repeat business.