Sunday Morning Brunch at The Pearl

It’s quite difficult to dine out in Columbus these days without going to one of Cameron Mitchell’s establishments. Throughout the city, his restaurants continuously take the cake when it comes to atmosphere, service and of course, food. So, it wasn’t surprising when we had one of the best brunch experiences at his unique gastropub, The Pearl,on a chilly, February weekend.

Now, to be honest, The Pearl is not the first place that comes to mind when I think of kid-friendly dining in Columbus, but our philosophy is this – for brunch, anything (for the most part) goes — and upon entering, we realized that many others had the same thought process as the restaurant was filled with young kiddos. My parents were in town so we also figured that we would have some extra hands on deck if things started to unravel 🙂 

The Pearl is one of our favorite date night spots. Some of our go-to menu items include the Jalapeno Corn Spoon Bread, the Southern Fried Chicken and of course, the assortment of fresh oysters on the half shell. We had a pretty good feeling that the brunch cuisine would be just as impressive. 

The restaurant is normally busy and filled with the sound of conversations and laughter. This is a definite win for us as it makes it difficult for our kids to be truly disruptive unless they’re having a complete meltdown (which we have certainly experienced before). However, everyone was pretty well-behaved on this particular day which always makes things go a little smoother. 

The Kids Brunch menu is basic, but includes all the necessary dishes such as a bacon cheeseburger, pancakes and grilled cheese. We ended up going with the pancakes for my oldest and side orders of bacon and scrambled eggs for my youngest. They seemed to be happy with it all, but that bacon was definitely the winner. They ate every last bite of it. (Also, just an FYI that the Kids Dinner menu looks pretty solid as well.)

Their regular brunch menu is filled with many of their popular lunch and dinner menu items as well as an assortment of delicious breakfast options. We all shared the House Smoked Salmon which was absolutely divine. Served with a deviled egg, brioche and scallion tarter sauce, this dish was the perfect way to kick off our meal. 

The Chicken and Waffles was also delicious. It’s super filling as to be expected so you’ll probably be taking some home with you, but it certainly hit the spot. One large, fluffy waffle is served with southern fried boneless chicken, peach compote and Ohio honey.

We also enjoyed the Tavern Benny which featured two poached eggs, house made sausage, buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy. This dish perfectly married two traditional brunch favorites – biscuits and gravy and eggs benedict. Something I would definitely order again. 

And how could I forget the cocktails. The Pearl has quite the impressive beverage menu including the Bourbon. Bacon. Beautiful (fat-washed Larceny bourbon, grapefruit shrub, maple syrup & candied bacon), the Charlie Brown (dark rye, honey peanut butter, cold brew & almond milk) and Bourbon Apple Punch (Bulleit bourbon, Watershed apple brandy & bay leaf spiced simple syrup. Or you can stick with the basics and go with their traditional Bloody Mary which is served with a Miller High Life, of course.