Breakfast Boutique owner and brunch expert Robert Pollard. (Photo by April Lisante)

by April Lisante

When the weather turns chillier and Sundays become at-home game days, I get the urge to make a big fall brunch.

But not just any brunch – one that uses fall flavors and creates a festive autumn mood.

I am hosting a pregame brunch next weekend, and I am looking for a way to make it amazing. Typically I do a quiche, some fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes and call it a day. I wanted to try some new ideas, so I went to Chestnut Hill’s resident buffet and comfort food expert.

I’d always thought that the key to a great brunch is simple: create a buffet that ticks all the comfort food boxes, from waffles to potatoes and eggs.

It turns out, you have to think way out of the box for a unique brunch. Like breakfast, lunch, and dinner items. And to give them a fall twist, you have to pay close attention to ingredients.

At Breakfast Boutique, (8630 Germantown Ave.), a cozy, French-inspired space, chef and owner Robert Pollard takes comfort foods and adds twists that make them out-of-this-world. In the year and a half since he’s been on the Hill, he’s become famous for his shrimp and grits, his red velvet waffles and his Boutique Skillet, a combination of sweet potato hash and eggs over easy served with black beans, onions and green peppers (see recipe following column.)

And right now, he’s capturing some of the fall’s best flavors with his exhaustive breakfast and brunch menu, which features apple pie or cinnamon swirl pancakes, as well as bananas foster French toast.

“In the fall I use a lot of fruit, apples are a fall thing,” Pollard said. “I don’t make anything the day before, I make it all fresh.”

The Chestnut Hill Breakfast Boutique opened in May 2018 and is one of three Pollard owns. His original is still going strong in Olney, and he has since opened a Mount Airy Breakfast Boutique, which debuted in February of this year.

The beauty of Pollard’s cooking is that after spending years as a high-volume caterer at the Convention Center and the Franklin Institute, the Philly native and trained artist is just really enjoying cooking smaller, from-scratch foods for locals. While he still does a multitude of catered, off-site events, he says it is critical to him to prepare everything homemade at the Boutique.

In fact, that is Pollard’s number one tip for preparing a great brunch: Never make anything ahead.

“It tastes so much better when it’s made right beforehand from scratch,” he said. “You ever go to a dinner or a holiday at someone’s house and they’ve been cooking for two days? It’s not the same.”

That means you really do have to prepare the brunch right before you serve it, sort of like a diner.

The only items he will prepare ahead are his meats, but not to cook them, just to brine them overnight. Pollard swears by brined turkey and chicken. That requires boiling salt in water, with garlic and herbs if preferred, then cooling it and pouring it over the chicken and allowing it to sit for a few hours in the refrigerator. The salt seals in the juices when it cooks and upgrades the flavor.

Which leads us to his next fall brunch rule of thumb: mix savory and sweet with abandon. Pollard uses his brined chicken to make a cornbread-stuffed chicken for a change of pace. Or don’t just make hash browns, make cinnamon sweet potato hash browns. And don’t just make a yogurt parfait, make a granola, yogurt and quinoa parfait.

Pollard uses fall grains in many of his dishes. He also loves to use as many root vegetables as possible this time of year.

When it comes to setting up the perfect brunch buffet, he suggests a long table for food, and a separate table for drinks.

“Because drinks can hold up the line,” he said.

If you aren’t serving alcoholic brunch favorites like mimosas or Bloody Marys, Pollard said he likes to do one beverage dispenser filled with brewed, then cooled, mint iced tea, and a second filled with apple cider mixed with sparkling water.

On the buffet table, Pollard starts with dishes and utensils, then arranges his brunch foods in order, beginning with the meats or proteins, then egg dishes and finally starches. As the finale, dessert items are placed at the end of the table.

And if you need table décor inspiration, just head out into the yard. Sprinking fall leaves on the tablecloth, or placing a few thin fallen branches in a vase is just fine.

Here is Pollard’s secret recipe for one of the most addictive fall brunch dishes on his Breakfast Boutique menu:

The Boutique Skillet

4 oz. diced sweet potato

1 oz. diced onions

1 oz. diced green peppers

2 oz. black beans

1 tsp. ginger puree

1 tsp. honey

1 tsp. chipotle and cinnamon seasonings

2 eggs cooked over easy

Sautee onion, pepper and sweet potato in olive oil. Add beans, seasonings, ginger and honey. Sautee until all combined and vegetables cooked through to make hash. Top with two eggs over easy and serve. Makes one serving.