Brunch Review: Tap 42
One of my best friends, Meredith (since she always gets peeved when I omit her names in posts that reference her), is getting married in November. We’ve known each other since kindergarten. She used to joke that I’d be one of her brides-men, but that joke came true this spring when she asked me to be part of her wedding. Mind you, she has thirteen brides-people, including two men.
The best part of all this is, of course, I was invited to her bachelorette weekend. How often does a guy get to do that?
Seventeen of us congregated on Fort Lauderdale, FL a few weekends ago. (Yes, you read right: Meredith had 17 people attend her weekend.) And, of course, since it was a bachelorette weekend, brunch had to be included. On Saturday, the Fellowship of the Bride (otherwise known as the #BrideTribe, or arguably the largest Bachelorette Party Millennials Have Ever Seen) took a multitude of Ubers to Tap 42.
The maids of honors chose the location. Tap 42 offers a bottomless brunch between 11 AM and 3 PM, which is just what a bridal party needs after being out until 3 AM on Friday in Fort Lauderdale. (For real, the night before I left a club with a group of bridesmaids, and we all agreed in the Uber we wanted pizza, so the Uber driver dropped us off at a “nearby pizza place.” As we order pizza, we Google the way back to the hotel. THAT UBER DRIVER DROPPED US OFF TWO MILES FROM THE HOTEL.)
Most of us checked out Tap 42’s brunch menu before we arrived. It’s easily found online here. We were somewhat surprised by its brevity. At least we wouldn’t be stupefied with options, but we also wondered if there were more options once on-site. The answer is, no; that is the menu. That said, this is one of the best brunches I’ve ever had and I will return any time I am in Fort Lauderdale (which isn’t that often).
The bottomless part of the brunch included three drinks options: Bloody Mary’s, mimosas, and Funky Buddha Floridians (a type of beer). At a certain point, they brought out a bucket of champagne…and a single glass of orange juice. Um. I guess they know why we’re here! And it was all only $15+meal price.
For food, since there were seventeen of us, I think everything on the Brunch Bites and Gastro Grub menus was ordered, but I’ll focus on what I got to sample. Personally, I ordered the Hangover ($13) – scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, white cheddar, and maple hollandaise on a French toast challah bun. The maple hollandaise had me slightly worried since I’m not a hollandaise fan, and maple? But holy. cow. I wanted to get one for the road.
The sandwich came with fries, but it turns out, sweet potatoes are also offered. And HOLY COW, those sweet potatoes looked like the best thing I had ever seen. I may or may not have had two mimosas before seeing them, but I saw my friend at the other table had gotten sweet potato fries, so I immediately walked up to our waitress (aka I got out of my seat) and asked if it was too late to get sweet potato fries. It wasn’t. Praise be unto sweet potato fries!
And there were no regrets had that day about the sweet potato fries. Like,
No.
Regrets.
(Except they were one dollar extra.)
Other featured dishes were the smoked salmon bagel – basically, bagel and lox ($12). The bride herself and a few others got the Green Eggs & Ham Benedict ($14), which consisted of pulled pork, bacon-cheddar toast, sunny side up eggs, hollandaise, and salsa verde (the green!).
A few others also tried the Drunken Goat ($14.50) – a lamb and beef blend (more like a burger than a gyro), whipped goat cheese, arugula, and some type of jam on a bun. It looked delicious.
Half of our table never finished their meal. I can’t decide if this was because there were so many drinks to be had or the portions were that big. (Don’t worry, I ate all of mine.) But I’m now considering my future, never-to-be bachelor party being in Fort Lauderdale so I can get that Hangover sandwich again.
If you liked this, then you may like: