Bottomless brunches, the young Brit’s cherished opportunity to eat a civilised meal and drink an uncivilised amount of alcohol, have become something of an institution here in the UK.
If you’ve been living under a sober stone in recent years, bottomless brunch involves restaurants offering unlimited amounts of prosecco or cocktails for an hour or two, alongside a short menu of (sometimes token) brunch plates. The whole ritual has become an integral part of the weekend in towns and cities across the country, so much so, in fact, that brunch bookings surged a massive 369% from 2013 to 2018.
Today, there’s a bottomless brunch to suit all tastes. After a Mexican that serves tacos and margaritas? You got it. Or perhaps one offering generous glasses of belly-warming rum punch and healthy portions of jerked lamb chops, rice ‘n’ peas, mixed salad and dumplings? All while you’re serenaded with reggae, soca and calypso music? Yep, there’s one of those, too. Keen for a slice of toast to soak up all that booze? It’s a bottomline brunch as much as a bottomless one for many restaurants.
While boozy brunches aren’t going anywhere and have a deserved place in the nation’s social calendar, the relationship between Brits and alcohol has certainly changed over the past few years. Recently, the average number of people in the UK abstaining from alcohol has increased significantly; during lockdown, 1 in 3 people took steps to reduce their alcohol consumption, and 6% have stopped drinking entirely.
Don’t get us wrong, we love a bottomless boozy brunch as much as the next person, but sometimes, we want to remember our weekend mornings. If you’re the same and you’re curious about what it might be like to spend your weekends not deep in hungover malaise, here’s why boozeless brunches are banging.
IT WON’T TURN INTO AN ALLDAYER
We’ve all felt the rest of our day slip away on that first sip of prosecco; the life admin you had to tackle, the deadlines you had to meet, the plans you had for a quiet night in with Strictly…
Moving onto the pub after a bottomless boozy brunch is inevitable, and with the stomach not properly lined (it so rarely is at a brunch), the likelihood of this thing turning into an all dayer is high. Instead, why not get the same sociability out of the occasion without the danger of laying waste to the weekend by enjoying a boozeless brunch?
THE RISE OF THE MOCKTAIL
You don’t have to stick to lattes and orange juice during your booze free bruncheon. In recent years, restaurants across the UK have seriously upped their mocktail game and this includes their brunch offering.
Many restaurants now offer ‘boozeless’ versions of their cocktails and, better still, create entirely new ones to cater for those forgoing booze. These days, with a high level of effort and creativity put into catering for the abstaining crowd, many of these non-alcoholic cocktails end up being more tempting than their alcoholic brethren.
Dishoom is one example of a quality restaurant serving quality mocktails. And it just so happens that their famous bacon naan roll, one of the best bacon rolls you can find in the capital we might add, is a fine brunch, indeed. To go alongside it, you can enjoy one of Dishoom’s exquisite, teetotal Espresso Martinis, made with Monsooned Catuai espresso and a touch of ginger, all for a total of just £15.10 – that sounds much better than cheap booze and badly cooked Eggs Benedict, don’t you think?
SAVE YOUR MONEY FOR NICE BOOZE
All-you-can-drink sounds like a good concept at first. However, paying £30 to drink as much Prosecco as is humanly possible is probably not a good idea. Why? Because you’re more than likely drinking cheap alcohol. Real bottom of the barrel stuff. A restaurant has overheads to consider, after all.
There’s also the time limit to think about. Ask yourself, can you really drink more than a bottle of Prosecco in two hours by yourself? Considering a bottle of cheap Prosecco only costs about £24 and your bottomless brunch costs £30 – well, you do the maths. Factor in the necessary cost of Gaviscon, too…
Of course, there are exceptions, with some fantastic brunch places offering up quality, hand-crafted cocktails. However, for that £30, you could buy a bottle of really lovely wine and enjoy something delicious elsewhere.
YOU CAN ENJOY THE WEEKEND
Is it just us or does our tolerance for booze definitely seem lower daylight hours? We’re not sure if there is any scientific basis to that claim, but we’re reassured by Andrew Misell, Director for Wales for Alcohol Change UK, who seems to agree with our hypothesis. He told Stylist Magazine that “Usually if we’re drinking during the day we’ll have things to do afterwards, and the effect of the alcohol on our system can make this harder to achieve, making us feel drunker than we usually would”.
Wouldn’t it be nice not to have that sluggish feeling of entering the afternoon a little hungover from your bottomless brunch?
THE BOTTOM LINE
Boozeless brunches can be just as fun as their bottomless counterparts. You’re able to spend time with your friends, drink refreshing mocktails, and then bounce into the afternoon hangover free and focused. What more could you want?
If you’re looking for more advice on staying sober and keeping sociable, here are 5 tips for enjoying a rich social life, alcohol free.