Sunday's Best: Where the People Match the Food

a restaurant review

One of my dream jobs is to write reviews. Movie reviews, book reviews (thanks, Goodreads) and restaurant reviews.

Well I’ve decided instead of dreaming, I’m just going to do. Lmk if someone wants to pay me for it, but even if not, it doesn’t mean I can’t make it my job. Do you have things you feel it your sacred duty to perform even if you aren’t being compensated monetarily? I bet you do. Well, one of mine is sharing my opinion. No thanks necessary.

Today I’m going to be reviewing a brunch restaurant.

Brunch is one of my favorite things. At a favorite things party I once declared brunch as my favorite thing and gave someone a loaf of chocolate sourdough bread I did not make and that would make for an excellent brunch item.

Then, many months later, someone who was attending that event showed up on my porch on my birthday with a bag full of food ingredients with which to make brunch. It was the best. And this is one of the many important reasons why you tell people about the things you love.

The restaurant today is: Sunday’s Best in Sandy, UT.

I recently went there with Sean, my favorite brunch-and all around-buddy.

Upon entry, one is immediately met with a lot of bold colors, gold fixtures, and patterned wallpaper. I know we all say we want to bring back wallpaper but who’s out there actually DOING it? Anyone? Are we too scared? Sean and I have been saying this for years. It is so fun and-I declare-high time I have a wallpapered wall in my life.

We sat down at our little table with vintage-style patterned grandma plates and bumpy hobnail glasses, a particular favorite of mine. (They look cool + provide helpful glass grip.) We looked around examining the furniture, the hardware, light fixtures, and general decor, which included our fellow diners.

I asked Sean, “What’s the aesthetic here? Or art style? Art Deco?”

If you need an idea of what art deco is, take a look at some fabric material I favorited in Etsy:

Heather Height Design

design by Spoonflower

Spoonflower

Design by Backroomfabric

Sean looked around and gave his analysis:

”Yes, I would say the style is art deco plus… Instagram?”

Which made me laugh. He pointed out the categorical differences and the alterations, the implementation of Instagram backdrop into a period-specific, historically-rooted art movement. He took items, identifying legitimate qualities identified by the style. and parsed out the unrelated Instagram features, comparing and contrasting the fusion of the juxtaposed pieces, all of which making for an eclectic, visually stimulating, perhaps artistically confusing but ultimately pleasing dining environment.

When we arrived we took notice of the people immediately. The lack of diversity is nothing new in this region, but this place felt uniquely designated with a specific uniformity in the way people were dressed, made up, coiffed, and generally aestheticized. Sean and I didn’t look bad—in fact, I’d say we looked pretty good. But it definitely felt like we hadn’t quite nailed the unwritten dress code and, by contrast, were the Plain Jane & Shane background people of a lot of people’s Instagram photos. Not that people were actually taking photos, but it just felt like that’s exactly what should be happening. Like we’d stumbled upon a photoshoot waiting to happen at a cool person convention with cool food.

Sunday’s Best is known for its beignets, which is deep-fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar. The restaurant offers house-made jam which, incidentally, is the exact phrasing of my love language. It’s not a bad brunch if a beignet is part of it.

Other brunch menu items:

• avocado toast

  charred asparagus toast

  smoked salmon toast

• eggs benny

• blt benny

• zucchini bread

• homemade toaster streudel

• dutch baby

• buttermilk,
  strawberry ricotta,
  and almond flour pancakes

• various salads like a wedgeless wedge (sean’s go-to salad except I think taking out the wedge defeats the purpose for him. I myself find this salad generally useless)

• chicken sandwiches

• tuna melt

• fish tacos

• and a lot more

I got the BLT benedict made with brioche, poached egg, smoked bacon, arugula, tomato confit, dijon citronette, and old bay.

Put greens and confit of any kind on a sandwich and I’m yours. It was delicious. Also, i don’t know why we don’t put eggs on everything. Have you had a fried egg on a burger? If so, you know what I mean.

Sean ordered the tuna melt made with albacore, gruyere, capers, and dill on caraway rye.

It looked good but I didn’t have any which is weird because we often swap midway, and typically I am Team Tuna Melt Always & Forever. But I was more interested in my own meal which left me perfectly satisfied. We both ate our meals and declared it all very good and hitting all the marks, which felt really good. We’re both fairly picky and often find ourselves finishing a meal as semi-biting food critics. Which might be more fun than having everything be pleasant or adequate. But when it comes to ingesting things, it feels good when you eat something that was exactly what your soul wanted, no?

The food both looked and tasted good, news I am happy to report. This food felt thoughtful, a fusion of both flavor and fashion. Because all I really want in the world is for people to care about what they do. It’s fun, but not necessary, when I enjoy it as well.

By the end I realized I’d gotten it kind of wrong, that the Instagram atmosphere was the colorful backdrop to my personal dining experience, where the pretty people matched the food, and not one picture was taken.

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