One Great Plate: Buffet Brunch at Lela

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Seafood tower at Lela brunch

The bottomless mimosa, splurge-tastic brunch scene in the Twin Cities has been a little sleepy lately, right? So if that's the Sunday you want to have, alert! Bloomington's Lela is making a big, bold move to take it over, and it's working. They're serving luscious eggs and chorizo, truly beautiful quality charcuterie, petit pastries of the first rank, steak, paella, wonderful shrimp, an omelette bar—and two dozen more good options. I went last week and it was a truly impressive. 

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Desserts at Lela Brunch

Important facts for the casual splurge bruncher:

As of this writing, prices are $29 for adults all-you-can-eat, $12 for kids, ordinary beverages included, add a bottomless mimosa or Bellini. The dining room is pretty, modern, light and airy, the servers are friendly, and the space works for folks in wheelchairs or toddlers. There's beautiful shrimp and plenty of lobster and crab claws in a classy ice tower—it would be worth it just for the shrimp cocktail, but there is so much more. The little pastries are perfect little things—the tiny lemon meringue tarts were both lemony and tart and topped with a little toasty meringue perfection. The creme brulée is exquisitely made, trembling and fresh. I'm told the former legendary Chez Collette pastry team is still on site and making them, and you can really tell. Plan on trying one of everything, I insist. When I dropped by they were also offering a spectacular charcuterie selection and very good cheeses, though my kids were mainly interested in decorating pancakes with fresh berries. This mega brunch is only offered Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Make your mom's birthday reservations now! 

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Brunch buffet at Lela

Important facts for the skeptical, even, dare I say, jaded foodie: 

I was frankly shocked to find a lot of big-flavor options at the Lela brunch—a spicy, lush and meaty egg and chorizo mix, a paella with loads of mussels and little squid, a marinated skirt steak, and some killer empanadas alongside the usual brunch favorites like pancakes and omelets. What gives? Lela has a new chef, Thomas Orbison, and a whole new kitchen team, all of whom worked together in Miami. They officially took over the restaurant in February after the former chef departed for new adventures. 

Fruit at Lela's brunch

Orbison has an interesting history—he was an army kid, growing up in Alaska and Texas, eventually joining the Air Force. A shoulder injury while serving meant he had to find a new path, so he went to Paris for cooking school, to the original Le Cordon Bleu. After graduation, he ended up cooking all over the country, including about six years in Miami. "I love the food in Miami," Orbison told me on the phone when I called him up to find out why things were so very good. "A lot of people hear Latin American food, and automatically think Mexican, but when you're eating in Miami, you get to taste so many different cultures—it's all of Central America, all of South America, you get to see the whole spectrum and how diverse the food is." His Miami team's mandate at Lela has been to preserve the DNA of the hotel restaurant, namely steak, crudo, and pasta, so they haven't had the chance to do much Miami style.

But then when they decided to do a big buffet brunch, they thought they needed to do something to stand out, and brought in their Miami know-how. "The chorizo and egg, I think that was inspired by growing up in Texas. Chorizo and eggs go so well together, and you get a little more depth than a typical scrambled eggs and sausage. We worked really hard on the menu to stand out from what was around us. The skirt steak is something you see a lot in Miami, from Argentinian cultural influence, and we figured it was approachable, not something you'd see in every brunch, and would stand out." Agreed! Orbison tells me they'll be rolling out some Miami elements to Lela's happy hour too, which I am bookmarking for my future plans. 

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