🥂 The concept of brunch is hardly new. The idea was first introduced by British writer Guy Beringer in a 1895 essay entitled Brunch: A Plea, where he encouraged readers to combine two meals into one — thus, the portmanteau “brunch” was coined. His argument was simple and to the point: on the weekends, you can allow yourself to wake up late and spend the afternoon feasting and fraternizing with friends. “In these hurrying, worrying, and scurrying days, the sweets of life are too often overlooked,” Beringer wrote in the 19th-century magazine Hunter’s Weekly.

Fast forward 130 years. Life is exponentially more “hurrying, worrying, and scurrying,” and brunch has evolved into something that Beringer might scarcely recognize. What was once a wholesome meal is now a raucous event often accompanied by DJ sets and unlimited refills on drinks like prosecco and mimosas, sparking the term “bottomless brunch.”

The trend has recently caught on “in Egypt,” but (naturally) we’ve put our own spin on it. Not big on hard starts and stops, the Om El Donia version of the bottomless brunch begins much later than it would elsewhere, usually between 3-5 pm, sometimes stretching on till 10-11pm (possibly even later during the summer months), extending the meaning of “bottomless” to its timeframe as well.

Dress codes are often defined in vague terms like “weekend chic” or “dress to impress” — another bottomless: the interpretation. The venues are upscale — think Kazoku, Pier 88, or Sachi — and the price tag is not small, typically EGP 3-5k per person, depending on the menu, the entertainment, and the occasion.

Now that we are in peak festive season, the brunch scene in Cairo is as crowded as our highways. Between private gatherings in homes — which hosts have also branded as “brunches” instead of what was once called dinners, lunches, or plain old Christmas parties — and the brunch events held at popular Cairo nightspots, it’s hard to keep up.

“People are really embracing the brunch format, not just because it’s trendy, but because they find the timing convenient,” Selma Aboul Dahab, chief commercial and operations officer at Quintessentially, tells us. As a global lifestyle management group, Quintessentially primarily caters to business executives, many of whom are no longer interested in late nights out. They recently held a well-attended members’ brunch at Kazoku, where the festivities began at sunset and continued until well into the night. “Brunches allow you to socialize and network and still be home early enough to relax, put your feet up, and enjoy your favorite show before going to bed at a reasonable hour,” Aboul Dahab added.

Quintessentially has partnered with food entrepreneur Omar Fathy, founder of Eatery and Kokomo, on The Business Brunch, a monthly after-work networking event held at Kokomo in District 5 from 5 to 10pm. The event usually includes 200-300 professionals, many of whom already know one another, but the casual setting allows them to talk shop in a relaxed atmosphere. Attendees are either invited or gain access with an EGP 3.3k ticket.

But brunch isn’t just for the business set, Cairenes of all ages are embracing the culture. American food sociologist Farha Ternikar — author of the book Brunch: A History — argues that brunch continues to be a way to display cultural capital. Even if young professionals are not yet high income earners, they use brunch to show that they are cosmopolitan and have taste. Ternikar is speaking specifically about the urban “creative class” in the US, but it’s no different here at home.

The Instagramability of colorful food and drink is definitely a contributing factor to the popularity of brunches. As more brunch events fill social media feeds with beautiful photos, of beautiful people, in beautiful venues, the more popular, commercially viable and socially valuable these events become, providing a wider scope for hotels, restaurants, and high-end caterers who are developing new menus and concepts specifically for brunch.

But like any trend that starts to reach fever pitch, there’s always backlash. They’re loud, they’re noisy, they’re over-priced, and they’re not conducive to intimate conversations. Not to mention the fact that people are photographing their food and each other more than they are actually eating, and the local irony of calling an event a brunch when it’s dark outside is mind-boggling. All common critiques from those who are not into the trend.

Was the legendary Anthony Bourdain perhaps on to something when he said, “Brunch is a horrible, cynical way of unloading leftovers and charging three times as much as you ordinarily charge for breakfast”?

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