I used to love me some weekends growing up ‘back in the day’ in Groton, CT. Especially in the dead of Winter because my mother, Jean Anna Tinsely Hollis, would cook all 7 of her Hollis kids pancakes and bacon or waffles and bacon on Saturday mornings and eggs, bacon, grits and buttered toast on Sunday mornings. Weekends were truly a time to sleep in, eat a ton of “Brunchy” foods and then go to church.
Perhaps that is why to this day I Love New Haven, as it is truly a foodie destination, and restaurants that serve “brunch” are not at all hard to find.
I celebrated my 55th birthday this past weekend with my girls – it was almost 2 weeks after the fact as I was actually born on Valentine’s Day. However, one of my three girlfriends was not available until this past Saturday since I had bucked tradition by choosing to celebrate my birthday this year over brunch instead of dinner. And believe it or not, the hardest part for me was choosing where to go as I had 3 former neighborhood faves in mind: The Pantry, Bella’s Cafe and Lena’s Cafe and Confections.
I spent my first 10 years in New Haven living in the East Rock section where The Pantry was the place to go for brunch.
I spent the next 11 years living in the Westville section of New Haven and everyone who lives in Westville knows there are two go-to restaurants for brunch: Bella’s Cafe and Lena’s Cafe and Confections.
“Bella’s,” as it is affectionately known, is long and narrow inside and the food is fantabulous – especially the brunches which are served from 8am-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The brunch menu changes each and every week and they don’t disappoint. The weekend we went I had the fabulous french toast. Yummy! And well worth the long lines and the wait!
Lena’s Cafe and Confections is less than a block away in a much larger space. As it turned out, this was the chosen restaurant. And surprisingly we did not have to wait in line at all and the food was out of this world. I had 3 blueberry pancakes with 4 turkey sausage links.
One of my 3 girlfriends had an omelette stuffed with crab meat, avocado, hash browns and toast on the side. She washed it all down with a mimosa.
The other two girlfriends had a chicken quesadilla and a chicken Panini. Hot Comfort Foods are now my new birthday treat and the good news is there are so many more restaurants to try in so many other New Haven neighborhoods (smile).
