Photo by Sophie Robertson. The Garden Table is a restaurant in Broad Ripple that has healthy brunch options as well as a wide selection of fresh-pressed juices.

SOPHIE ROBERTSON | STAFF REPORTER | ssrobert@butler.edu

Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey, it’s time for brunch! Kickstart your Saturday plans or ease your way into the Sunday scaries with these delicious eats. Brunch – a generational obsession – is much more than the combination of two meals for convenience and efficiency. Brunch is a social activity and an Instagram opportunity. It is an escape from the Butler Bubble and a reprieve from Easy-Mac malnutrition. Brunch is savory or it’s sweet, it’s coffee or it’s booze.

As Spring approaches, data from Google Trends shows that search interest in brunch is steadily rising. Look no further. Here are 10 of the best brunch spots around Butler.

Milktooth

Break breakfast norms with Milktooth’s inventive, daring and unexpected brunch as chef Jonathan Brooks pairs unorthodox ingredients with familiar favorites. A Dutch baby pancake coupled with Spanish cheese, grapefruit and shaved brussel sprouts or a steak and egg combo paired with mushrooms and curry are sure to test both your taste buds and your definition of brunch. If the food is not enough, take a swig – or a few swigs – from Milktooth’s substantial selection of booze, featuring 15 cocktails in addition to an assortment of beer, wine and liquor. Milktooth’s speciality coffee bar offers a vast array of non-alcoholic beverages as well. The modern, bright and open-air atmosphere of this repurposed garage is often filled to the brim with brunchers, so make sure you have time to linger. Featured in Bon Appetit as a Best New Restaurant and in Condé Nast Traveler on the list of Where in the World to Eat, Milktooth is definitely worth a visit.

Junior Madeline Gambino described Milktooth as one of her favorite restaurants for brunch, especially on special occasions such as family in town or holiday weekends. Yet, she explains that the lure of Milktooth can be attributed to more than just the food.

“The food is unlike any brunch food I have ever had, but it’s also a lot about the experience that you have when you visit Milktooth,” Gambino said. “It’s definitely one of the top atmospheres for brunch.”

Good Morning Mama’s

Travel back in time at Good Morning Mama’s – a former gas station turned retro 1950s diner. Choose from eggs scrambled with whole wheat spaghetti, a Hawaiian loco moco with rice, eggs and gravy or, chocolate chip pancakes. An outdoor patio and high-stool bar add seating variety to the vintage chrome tables. Complete with a jukebox, mustard-yellow walls and groovy caricatures, this brunch spot is sure to put some pep in your step and that won’t just be the coffee working its magic.

The Garden Table

A bright and refreshing oasis, Garden Table is sure to leave you feeling full, energized and revitalized. As a local eatery and fresh juicery, Garden Table’s wide assortment of cold-pressed juices and unwavering dedication to natural, seasonal and locally-sourced foods is the perfect pick-me-up for any occasion. Fan favorites include quinoa breakfast bowls, avocado toast bennies, acai bowls and chorizo hash bowls. The bright, vibrant and welcoming aesthetic will keep you there long after your plate has been licked clean.

Three Sisters Café

Featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, Three Sisters Cafe serves up a brunch that is Guy Fieri-approved. Lemon corn cakes with raspberries and lemon curd, a variety of egg scrambles and beer biscuits with sausage and eggs are only a few of the traditional breakfast options with a twist at this over 20-year-old restaurant. Located in a quaint house in the heart of Broad Ripple, Three Sisters Cafe will make you feel right at home as you gather around one of its many kitchen tables.

Biscuits

Biscuits Cafe is an unassuming yet delicious brunch spot perfect for those on a budget yet craving Mexican food at all times of the day. Combining Mexican meals like chorizo scramble or breakfast chimichanga with American favorites like bacon cheeseburgers and stacks of pancakes, this affordable and casual strip-mall diner is one to try. Not to mention they serve some of the best iced coffee in Broad Ripple, filling a glass mug the size of your head.

Senior Lili Pigott is a frequenter of Biscuits, enjoying its reasonable prices, the variety of its menu, and its ability to cure any hangover. Pigott recommended Biscuits not only as an any weekend activity but also as a holiday brunch spot.

“It’s great for Easter,” Pigott said. “I’ve gone every single year.”

Ezra’s Enlightened Café

Ezra’s Enlightened Cafe is an eatery and juicery dedicated to the provision of clean food and wellness products to the Indianapolis community. Everything from smoothies, juices, coffees, elixirs and tonics to salads, toasts, bowls, wraps and cakes is dairy-free, gluten-free and non-GMO. All products are free of processed sugars and animal products with the exception of some raw sustainably sourced honey. Every dish is made completely from scratch with ingredients sourced through local land and local farmers. Looking for the best vegan or vegetarian spot in town or simply just a change of pace? This quaint cafe in the nook of a Broad Ripple alley will satisfy this need and more.

Love Handle

For all those protein mongers and adventurous eaters out there, this one’s for you. Bite down into spicy mushroom biscuits and gravy like you’ve never had before or open wide for one of Love Handle’s many bold sandwich combinations including roast pork belly, buffalo chicken, jellied egg and a whole lot more. Tack some desserts on the end of your meal to balance out the savory to sweet ratio. Lining Mass Ave. as a modern approach to a traditional deli, Love Handle is perfect for a casual morning, complete with a full movie projector playing as you eat.

Yolk

Yolk is a breakfast restaurant started in Chicago, Illinois. Its open-kitchen concept, blue and yellow theme, and energizing vibes set the stage for its classic breakfast with a modern spin. Red velvet french toast, five egg omelets and bacon waffles are worth the wait in this brunch hotspot now in Chicago, Texas and Indiana.

Cafe Patachou

Recognized by Bon Appetite, Travel + Leisure, Gourmet, Thrillist, Best of the Midwest and more for its mastery of the art of brunch, Cafe Patachou is a nationally acclaimed dining experience in Butler’s own backyard. So, go ahead, ditch Atherton for a day and try this “Student Union for Adults” instead. Sip on the self-serve, decadently flavored coffee of the day as you wait to be seated. With an extensive brunch menu full of flavor variety and fresh farm-to-table ingredients, there’s surely something to satisfy everyone. Plates full of broken yolk sandwiches, croissant french toast and Cuban breakfasts speckle the tables – many accompanied by the ever so popular side of cinnamon toast. To top it all off, you are brunching for a good cause. Patachou Cafe is a partner restaurant of The Patachou Foundation founded by Martha Hoover, working to feed children in the Indianapolis community.

Lincoln Square Pancake House

Started in 1985 by Greek immigrant George Katris, Lincoln Square Pancake House is more than just a restaurant – it’s a story of the American dream. Now with 10 locations scattered throughout the state, this affordable, comfortable, friendly and no-frills diner has grown to become the favorite brunch place of Hoosiers everywhere. As the name suggests, Lincoln Square offers all sorts of griddle sweets, such as french toast, crepes, and waffles. More savory options are available as well with the menu’s many different skillets, omelets, bennies and biscuits and gravy. Lincoln Square is community-oriented, not only serving the community in which it is but reflecting it as well.

Juniors Luke VanLangevelde, Hannah Tourville and Trent Craig spoke enthusiastically about their experiences at Lincoln Square from the moment you walk in the door to the moment you leave. They described the menu as expansive, unique, and catering to every individual and the atmosphere as happy and comforting, making you feel right at home. Yet, it was the food that sealed the deal.

VanLangevelde and Tourville raved about the banana bread french toast in particular, describing the very first time they both tasted it.

“I was not expecting the flavor explosion that I experienced,” Tourville said. “You know when you chew for a few seconds and then something is just so amazing that your mouth just stops chewing and you can’t move? That’s what it was like.”

VanLangevelde agreed.

“I had the exact same face,” VanLangevelde said. “I can’t even describe it – that first bite just blew my mind. In my almost 21 years of life, it is the best thing that I’ve ever tasted.”

Although less passionate about the banana bread french toast, Craig praised Lincoln Square for its ability to satisfy any appetite.

“You never need to go anywhere else because Lincoln Square has it all,” Craig said. “If there is another place next to Lincoln Square, and you were like, ‘Oh, we’ll do the other place today,’ and you drove up in that parking lot, you would not go to the other place. You would go to Lincoln Square”

Brunch your way through Indianapolis with any – or all – of these 10 delicious options because, after all, Dawgs gotta eat.