The thing about brunch is this: It requires a little more glamour than breakfast. It can't be too noisy; there can't be too many children running around; alcohol must at least be an option; and the venue can't be too uptight and hoity-toity because customers need to be able to stumble in unshaven, wearing blue jeans and bedroom slippers. And the food needs to be good, too. Brookside's Café Europa scores on all those points. Because the restaurant is also a bakery, the fluffy biscuits served with the sausage gravy are extraordinary, and the sourdough pancakes, filled with fresh huckleberries, are in a class by themselves. Yes, chef Nathan Feldmiller's brunch dishes are a little more costly than IHOP or First Watch, but most people are willing to shell out a little extra for an eggs Benedict with a perfect, satiny hollandaise or a hard-to-find delicacy such as a smoked-salmon potato latke.
