Brunch Con – like Comic Con, but for brunch food! That’s what I told everyone I spoke with about the event. Founded in 2016, Brunch Con is a relatively new event that travels the US, bringing each city’s best brunch menu items all to one place! It features local restaurants, a great way for them to advertise. It also features local vendors selling “brunch-related items”, as well as games and brunchy photo-opps. A brilliant concept! However, in San Diego at least, Brunch Con has a little work to do…Here are my personal pros and cons of Brunch Con.
Pro: Beautiful location! Brunch Con in San Diego was hosted at Broadway Pier, situated on the San Diego Bay. The western view boasted the gorgeous water, boats and Naval grandeur, the eastern view highlighted San Diego’s beautiful skyline.
Con: Cold and cramped. Half indoor, half outdoor, the outdoor portion had a very chilly wind. The indoor portion is a large space with one main large garage-door type structure at the entrance which remained open for the whole convention, allowing wind to whip through and again chill you to the bone. With all the food in this area, it also became rather cramped.
Pro: Cool little lanyard and tag that helped you navigate around the event.
Con: TERRIBLE stamp which you were required to get at entry that never dried and got all over EVERYTHING, including my new pink dress. Sad face.
Pro: Delicious food! San Diego restaurants really outdid themselves. Everything I ate were delicious small plates or samples, and after several booths, you did get full. Honorable mention goes to BIGA for the amazing polenta dish, and Island Style Hawaii for the impressive, diverse spread.
Con: Lines. I don’t know if it was just an organizational disaster, or if the event oversold tickets, but the lines were RIDICULOUS. I’m talking 30-45 minutes to obtain 4-5 mini brunch items! Worse than Disneyland! After the first wait, my girlfrends and I got smart and decided to tag team the rest of the event. One person held our place in line while the other two used the bathroom or checked out vendors or grabbed a drink. Yikes.
Pro: Great drinks! The event is advertised as having bottomless mimosas and Bloody Marys. Mimosas were as expected, like any place with bottomless champagne. Bloody Marys were sponsored by Ketel One, and were truly the most delicious Bloody Marys I’ve ever had. Peroni sponsored the beer, also a nice light choice for brunch food.
Con: THE LINES. In three and a half hours time, I was only able to get one Bloody Mary, one beer, and two tiny mimosas. They shut the bar down 10 minutes before the event ended and one woman’s head all but exploded as she chewed out the poor bar staff, who probably had nothing to do with this organizational disaster, but I could sympathize with her. As with the food, there was just not enough space, staff, and product to go around FAST enough.
So did we have a good time? Yes. Did we feel like we were ripped off? A little. At $61 a ticket and promises of bottomless drinks and food, we feel we could have gotten much more. I got to dress in a donut-theme though, which was great, and I got several compliments! In talking to these kind people who stopped to give props to my ensemble, I noticed an obvious, common theme: they just didn’t get enough. One tipsy girl blurted out “I mean, we couldn’t get to the food, so we just drank!” Another said “I’m hungry!” and I asked if it was because she drank instead, to which she replied “No, I didn’t really drink, I didn’t really eat, I just waited in line.”
So Brunch Con, you may have some backlash after this one, but I hope you continue to work on this event and improve the logistics, because it really could be a great time for all.
The Practical Priss 