Boozy bottomless brunch backlash

Originally published July 19, 2016

I am a member of Generation Peak Booze, and I've been enjoying Time Inc's new breakfast-themed site Extra Crispy of late. Throw these elements into a blender and...

• Five years ago, brunch in the UK was pretty distinct from the American incarnation. There was little booze involved, let alone of the bottomless variety, and as a result it wasn't really used to market restaurants. Today, a cursory look at a weekend's food & drink listings in London illustrates how things have changed.
• It's long intrigued me that educated, metropolitan Americans - who in my experience tend to be somewhat horrified by Brits' alcohol consumption - see boozing in the late morning/early afternoon as not only acceptable, but such an ingrained ritual that the prospect of it disappearing from New York caused ripples of panic.
• Now it's taking off in the UK, and we can only hope that the joy binge-drinking brings to our streets on Friday and Saturday nights is matched by the kind of Sunday afternoons Manhattanites now enjoy.
• Does offering bottomless booze make economic sense for restaurants? In and of itself, it's thought the answer is no - but the deal is treated as a loss leader in the hope that consumers (are able to) remember the great time they had and decide to return to sample the dinner fare sometime.
• In the States bottomless brunch has been a thing for long enough that the backlash has been running for a few years (at least in the media). But witness also the way this writer is gradually seduced into making peace with a meal he was dreading. Wonder what could have swayed him?

Otherments

• I finally watched seminal true crime documentary The Staircase, and its sequel from ten years on. You can watch the former on YouTube and the latter on Daily Motion.
• From Comedy Bang Bang: the brilliant Paul F Tompkins as Werner Herzog, reviewing a hotel on Yelp.
• Did you know that in 1956 two passenger planes collided over the Grand Canyon? It led to a change in the approach to air traffic control.
• Some of the most shared viral videos over the last couple of years were fakes created by an Australian agency.
• Here are 18 podcasts for kids.
• Remember Garfield Minus Garfield? It's far from the only project remixing Jon, Odie & co.
• I loved this selection of nightime shots of deserted New Jersey motels.