Courtesy of High Noon Brunchery
Brunch can be polarizing. Diners crave it, chefs (mostly) hate it. Nearly a religion in the South, some people dress to the nines, while others come straight from the gym. Healthy or decadent? Green juice or endless Bloody Marys?
Lorenzo Wyche, the man behind Social House, has done his research. He thinks he knows what women—his target audience—want (at least in terms of brunch), and he’s giving it to them with his new project, a Douglasville restaurant called High Noon Brunchery (8440 Courthouse Square East). Wyche co-founded popular College Park brunch spot the Breakfast Boys and helped launch Gocha’s Breakfast Bar, Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen, Breakfast at Barney’s, and Rock Steady. At High Noon, he’s combining his learnings into what he hopes will be a destination restaurant, akin to Paula Deen’s the Lady and Sons in Savannah.
“No one understands brunch better than me,” he says. “Brunch is a women’s business. It’s the female sports bar. Beauty is 50 percent of the experience.”
Courtesy of High Noon Brunchery
He purchased High Noon Eatery, which had only been open for about six months, and painted it pink. He wanted to capitalize on the charm of the building, located on a historic square. Thus, an art deco look came to be with soft touches focused on femininity.
He creates eye-catching Southern fare with diner roots—think banana pudding French toast, chicken and pancakes, and a classic tuna melt. “We learned that women’s diets have changed: It’s vegetarian, gluten free, sauce on the side. This menu reflects a lot of those nuances,” Wyche says. “It doesn’t come off super healthy, but we have kale and brussels sprouts and gluten-free blueberry pancakes made with rice flour. We don’t sacrifice the flavor or luxuriousness of what you’d expect in a pancake.”
Courtesy of High Noon Brunchery
Though an espresso machine wouldn’t fit in the kitchen, High Noon serves cold brew-based beverages using a dark roast. Options include butter pecan iced coffee, Irish, and white mocha iced coffee. Wyche’s market research found that his audience likes sweeter wines, so he compiled a fruit-forward wine list with pinot grigios and Moscatos, among other options. Mimosas come in numerous flavors: pineapple, cranberry, strawberry, and guava mint, to name a few. Cocktails utilize sake to give the wine-based cocktails “a little lift.” The oversized Kiss Me Pink Sangria is designed to be photographed. (For $26.95, you may want to drink it, too.)
Right now, High Noon is only using about half of the 5,000-square-foot building. Wyche says a courtyard is in the works, but reservations are recommended.
Now that his restaurants aren’t the only ones doing brunch, is he worried about competition?
“The restaurant business is built on trends. If you’re the only game in town, you can’t get that mass support,” he says. “The more restaurants doing brunch, the better. We’re going to dominate this local market and people will come from across Atlanta to taste what’s local to this area.”
Courtesy of High Noon Brunchery
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Carly Cooper
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