FOOD MATTERS | Brunch is where the heart is

Brunch is — or ought to be — the least stressful meal of the week. Everything comes along: dog, scarf, hat, kids. No hurry; you don’t drive, you walk, you stroll.

Coffee, maybe a Bloody Mary. Eggs and potatoes, buttered toast and huckleberry jam. Maybe avocados, salsa and sour cream.

Let the tourists descend on Alki or ascend the Space Needle; you, confirmed native, make your way placidly to your own Holy Grail.

The sacrament of eggs Benedict is a secular rite in Seattle, as democratic as Seafair, as nondenominational as a fun run and, above all, as specifically local as a block party.

So let’s take a look at brunch in some of our neighborhoods, compiling notes on visits over the last few months, starting with Madison Park.

Where to eat, what to order

Twenty bucks might seem like a lot for a mimosa, but the one at Bing’s (4200 E. Madison St.) is, ahem, “bottomless.” The good news is that you can start at 8:30 a.m., though they will probably cut you off by 2 p.m.

In the meantime, however, you can go through a variety of scrambles, from a straightforward omelet to a meatloaf option to, of course, the original Benny, which is served with asparagus and rosemary hollandaise.

Down at the corner, the Beach House Bar & Grill (1927 43rd Ave. E.) will start you off with a peach Bellini (vodka, peach schnapps, champagne) and a salmon lox omelet. The Bellini may not transport you to Harry’s Bar in Venice, but at least you won’t need to take a gondola home.

Moving over to Madison Valley, the heavy hitter remains Luc (2800 E. Madison St.), whose smoked salmon and spinach omelet is dressed with crème fraîche and whose almond-crusted French toast is topped with whipped cream.

And while Luc does indeed have a mimosa and a Bloody Mary on its beverage list, its most intriguing item is the Beautiful Morning, made with vodka, orange juice, cranberry juice and apricot liqueur.

Cafe Flora (2901 E. Madison St.) doesn’t depend on meat for any of its offerings. Instead, it starts you off with something it calls Garden of Goodness Juice: fresh-pressed apple, kale, ginger, celery, carrot and lemon juices (fiber, flavonoids and beta-carotene “to fuel your body and start the day off right”).

Unless you are seriously into the gluten-free, vegan lifestyle (not that there’s anything wrong with that — this is Seattle, after all), you might want to order something familiar like huevos rancheros, which comes with blue corn tortillas, black beans, feta, avocado and tomatillo salsa.

At the top of Madrona is that longstanding brunch destination, the Hi Spot Café (1410 34th Ave.). It’s known for its Mexican-themed omelets and its cheese-baked eggs. The Bloody Maria is made with premium-quality Sauza Gold Tequila.

St. Cloud’s (1131 34th Ave.) also does a brunch, with a chicken-fried steak as part of its “not-so-standard” breakfast. It also serves a fine sour cream coffeecake on weekends.

In Leschi, Daniel’s Broiler, (200 Lake Washington Blvd.) has a lock on the premium steak-and-eggs menu, priced to match. But there’s a trick to a more moderate check: Order something like the strawberry cheesecake-stuffed French toast, and you won’t need to take out a second mortgage.

The bargain beverage for the neighborhood is at BluWater Bistro (102 Lakeside Ave.), where mimosas and Bloody Marys are only $3.50 at brunch time. BluWater also serves corned beef hash at brunch, a welcome addition to weekend menus.

Between the two is the most recent arrival, Meet the Moon (120 Lakeside Ave.). As I reported here last month, it’s a new venture from Heavy Restaurant Group, operators of the Purple Wine Bar concept.

Its weekend brunch menu features breakfast sandwiches and avocado toast, along with a breakfast bowl of eggs, cheese, guacamole and pico de gallo. Drinks include a vividly colored hibiscus punch and a flavorful Bloody Mary made with green chili vodka.

The afterglow

In the afterglow of a Benedict, the physical body has been nourished, the mind buzzed by bubbles or jolted by caffeine. Brunch has fulfilled its function. You hear the siren call of garden, of crossword, of couch, and you make your way home in a state of grace.

RONALD HOLDEN’s next book about the history of local food and drink, “Forking Seattle,” will published in July 2016. To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.