Brunch

It was a brunch of epic proportions. We arrived at our favorite pub an hour before noon on Sunday for a private party, carrying our Pyrex dish of homemade tamales smothered in chili and melted cheese.  Todd, the publican, had a shank of wild pig on the electric rotisserie. A brewer named Adam brought in a massive pan of grilled chicken, mushrooms, baby red potatoes and haricort vert. His brother, a shrimper and chef, brought a bowl of boiled shrimp and homemade aioli mayonnaise. Soon the bar was lined up with slow cookers full of beans, chunky beef chili, and stew. Someone had brought biscuit dough and pan sausage rolled into pinwheels. Meanwhile, bottles of vodka, blended Scotch whisky, Belgian beers and wine showed up on a handy tabletop. Todd and his wife were kept busy drawing pints of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.

With the kind of crowd that frequents our favorite pub, conversation drifts to books we’ve read, to how to work our latest tech gadgets, to home remodeling in progress, to travels from which we’ve recently returned. We learn we have something in common with people we’re meeting for the first time. He’s a fellow journalist, a home brewer; she bakes bread from scratch, we like the same author, the same songwriter.

We left before 2 PM, full of good food and conversation, but we later learned that people kept arriving until 3:00. When we got home, we realized we hadn’t paid for the three pints of Celebration Ale we had consumed. We went back on Thursday. Settling ourselves at the bar, we told Todd we had come to pay our tab. He waved a hand at us and said, “You guys don’t owe me anything,” and he drew us a beer.

He looked back over his shoulder with a grin. “Actually, nobody paid for their beers that day. In fact, you and Pat are the only ones who offered.”

He handed us our beers, laughed like a kid who’s just put something over on his teacher, and said, “But, boy, wasn’t it great? Wasn’t it fun?”

My end of the year wish for you is that, wherever you live,  you find a pub like our, where you don’t have to dress up – they take you as you are. Where you feel as comfortable as in your own living room, where you can find great conversation, or sit in a corner and read a book, and where you can take your dog along if you like. Where they’ll open up on a Sunday morning for a private brunch – of epic proportions.