Brunches and Happy Hours
The Mockingbird, Nashville
Brunch 10:30 to 2:30 on Saturdays and Sundays
Oh my goodness, the Mockingbird has a delightful brunch straight out of Alice in Wonderland. They have specialty drinks, specialty entrees, and specialty doughnuts, yes doughnuts. We shared, yes shared, the pineapple upside down donut among four people.
The Church Punch is quite delicious and makes you super glad you're not actually at a bridal shower. The Coffee drinks are served iced, so buyer beware! I gotta have hot coffee. They have a cute little outdoor area with seating for maybe thirty people, and their servers are on point. Yeah, that's a pear mimosa in a bag. Yeah, they have bendy straws. Yeah, there's outdoor seating. :)
Tupelo Honey Cafe, Franklin, TN
Happy Hour M-F 3 to 6
Brunch 10 a.m. every day
Tupelo Honey has some of the nicest servers on the planet. If you want good service, this is the place for you. Their menu is HUGE. Huge menus make me nervous, and even more so when you ask the lovely server what's good on the menu, and they smile proudly, "Everything!" Liars. The food is maybe 3/5 stars, and always seems a little bland and missing something. The drinks are lovely. Their outdoor seating is vast. We've been here for dinner and brunch, and both times the service was excellent and the food just so-so. They do have a good mimosa (yes you can screw up a mimosa), and they proudly serve brunch seven days a week. It's a good place to try about once a year and be mildly disappointed. Some folks love it, though, which is why there's normally a line out the door. Reservations recommended.
Bar Louie, Murfreesboro
Brunch Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until 3 p.m.
Happy Hour M-F 4-7 p.m.
Bar Louie, though a chain actually has a decent brunch! They also have a huge outdoor seating area, and it's pretty darn easy to get a table. Their scrambles are good and they have what they call almost bottomless mimosas. During their happy hours, they have 1/2 off several appetizers and $4.50 drinks.
Mimi's Cafe, Murfreesboro
Brunch 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
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If girl food and mimosas are what you want, Mimi's is a good place. While never outstanding, it's a solid place to go if you're keen on quiche and salad and you haven't had the foresight to make reservations somewhere else. They do have $5 mimosas, and there are about half a dozen tables available for outdoor seating on their patio.
Red Bicycle
Brunch every day 7 a.m.
8 a.m. on weekends
Red Bicycle in Murfreesboro is sort of all the things we hate. Order at the counter. Take your number to your table. Flat prosecco in your mimosa. Mushy scramble in which you can't really tell which is egg and which is potato (did they put it in a food processor?). And ohhhh the parsley. So much parsley. Lots of tables squished together indoors during a pandemic. Glaring subject-verb error on your website! Maybe steer clear of this one (pun intended). They did have a quite a coffee selection if that's your thing. There are a couple of high top pub style tables with some precarious wrought iron barstools outside on the sidewalk, but the flies will absolutely carry you away.
