Fork Wants to Change the Way You Do Brunch

Generally speaking, a table at brunch is almost never for one, and that's a concept Fork holds dear — especially now, since they've begun offering their for-the-table brunch platters.

For years, Ellen Yin and Eli Kulp's Old City mainstay has offered Sunday brunch menus of all sorts (but always refined), and with a James Beard-recognized bread baker in Alex Bois, morning offerings have only gotten better. But an "elevated" brunch can be a hard sell to a city so full of gastropubs and daytime watering-holes, and a sub-$10 egg sandwich is a lot easier on the eyes than a spoon drag after a night of heavy drinking. But the truth of the matter is: brunch can be quite the event, as polished as you'd like it to be, and usually, the more communal it is, the better it tastes.

With that in mind, Fork's brunch platter menu looks downright impressive, and really, it's kind of a deal. Whether you share it with a friend, or many of them; as a supplement to chef de cuisine John Patterson's a la carte options, or as the main event, the way you order depends on your preferred style of brunch.

Choices go like this:

Continental: assorted house-baked pastries and breads by Samantha Kincaid and Alex Bois, served with all the fixings: butters and spreads, farm-fresh yogurt, and individual house-made granola parfaits — basically, a fancy bread basket for picking and plucking, for $15.

Fruits of the Sea: raw Sweet Amalia oysters, smoked caviar, house-made cream cheese, seafood salad and massive jumbo prawns with house-cured dill pickles and chow-chow for $50.

House-Smoked Fish & Bagels: smoked fish galore, available in two sizes—small ($30, 1-3) people, and large ($55, 3-6 people). Arctic char, smoked mussels with aioli, bluefish rillette, house-smoked cod brandade with Bois's bagels and breads.

Plowshare Farm Frittata: an of-the-season frittata, featuring whatever Plowshare has to offer, baked into a large cast-iron pan with a side of seasonal greens and roasted fingerling potatoes. Price is dependent on the ingredients, it serves up to three people for, at most, $35.

Find the full menu here.