Brunch at Duchamp

The scene: Duchamp’s intimate dining room projects cool: clean lines, sleek communal tables, mod plastic chairs and a generally minimalist decor. It’s the sort of spot you want to be seen drinking a cocktail on a Saturday night. To wait until sundown to saunter in, however, would be a mistake.

By day, the Bucktown bistro exudes a different kind of cool. This month, it’s tastefully decked out for the season, a petite bowl of pine sprigs on every table and trios of silver ornaments delicately suspended from the light fixtures. On a recent visit, we caught some kooky French pop on the sound system—a cheery alternative to the insidious carols that loop through our heads this time of the year.

Though Duchamp’s been serving brunch since its August opening, it’s not yet the go-to spot on this stretch of Damen Avenue. Just a few doors down, Toast still draws a line. Here, you can walk right in.

The cuisine: In its ideal form, brunch takes the best of breakfast and the best of lunch and brings them together for a few glorious hours, usually on a lazy Saturday or Sunday. In reality, many brunches forsake the "lunch" part of the equation, focusing on heavy breakfast items and ignoring the joys of eating a juicy burger at 10 a.m. because, hey, it’s the weekend, and why not?

Not Duchamp, where the brunch menu goes so far as to work in several dinner favorites, including the addictive East Meets West hot wings ($8) and chef Michael Taus’ spin on steak and eggs, grilled skirt steak and a little round, parmesan-smoked bacon quiche with a perfect buttery crust.

Brunch exclusives include grilled chorizo and egg quesadillas ($8) and grilled turkey sausages sandwiched between two pieces of rosemary flatbread with cucumbers and Greek yogurt ($9). Don’t miss the house-made Italian sausage ($11), two thick links served over grilled red and yellow bell peppers with triangles of grilled polenta. Like the wings and the steak, it would be at home on the dinner menu too. But since it’s not, it’s just the excuse we were looking for to visit Duchamp twice in one weekend.

***

Loved it: Mango margarita ($8)

Hated it: It’s not quite hate-worthy, but the kitchen is a bit stingy with the bacon in Uncle Frank’s Mountain Potatoes ($6).

Brunch time: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $25 per person, with a cocktail

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