Brunch Bets: The Breakfast Club

With its impressive collection of 1980s pop memorabilia, the Breakfast Club in Allston puts a fresh spin on your typical diner. Photos by Alexandra Wimley (COM’17)

One scene you won’t find in the classic 1985 John Hughes film The Breakfast Club, about five high schoolers spending a Saturday together in detention, is anyone actually at breakfast. But fans of the coming-of-age film can step back in time to the 1980s while savoring brunch at Allston’s the Breakfast Club. The servings are large, the coffee bottomless, and the decor a spot-on Brat Pack–channeling experience.

Former DJ and self-described movie buff George Athanasopolous opened the Breakfast Club in 2002, and has transformed it into a small museum loaded with pop culture paraphernalia. You’ll find 1980s album sleeves, movie posters (The Karate Kid, Top Gun, The Breakfast Club), and lunch boxes harking back 30 years sharing shelf space with an Atari thermos. But it’s the combination of kitsch, tasty food, and affordable prices that has people lining up outside. Expect to wait if you come after 9 a.m. on a weekend.

The food is the real draw here. It’s easy to get distracted by the hefty menu. There are 13 types of eggs benedict alone, not to mention omelets, French toast, breakfast sandwiches, burgers, and paninis. The restaurant is also more sustainable-minded than most diners. For example, cage-free, organic eggs are used in all egg dishes, and the English muffins come from Stone and Skillet in nearby Medford. Popular standouts are the library specials, each named after a character from the Hughes film. One is the Princess ($9.49), a Belgian waffle topped with seasonal fruit and whipped cream.

Central to any good brunch is coffee. Here, the bottomless cup is rich, Colombian, and at $2.69, a real value. Our waiter appeared unbidden several times to offer refills.

We knew from looking over the menu that we had to order one of the signature library specials. We chose the Basket Case ($10.99), named after the film’s lovable, compulsively lying weirdo Allison Reynolds. The hearty dish consists of two eggs, home fries, scali toast, bacon, sausage, or ham, and pancakes or French toast. The sunny-side up eggs, bacon, and French toast we chose spread across two plates. Some of the egg white was unpleasantly runny, but we enjoyed mopping up the soft yolk with the sesame seed–crusted scali, a traditional local bread. The bacon was both crispy and tender and the home fries tasty and crisp, but could have been better seasoned. The French toast, slightly crispy outside, soft inside, was subtly flavored with cocoa powder and powdered sugar.

We couldn’t resist ordering a sweet dish “from the griddle or the iron.” Patrons choose from Texas-style French toast, buttermilk pancakes, or a Belgian waffle, then pick drool-worthy toppings (prices vary). Gluten-free and whole-wheat pancakes are also available ($2 more), as is pure maple syrup ($1.99). We decided on pancakes, but picking a flavor was more difficult. Nutella ($8.99) was one option, featuring everyone’s favorite chocolate spread, crushed macadamias, and whipped cream. We settled on the chunky monkey ($8.99), with bananas, chocolate chips, walnuts and caramel sauce, which was an excellent choice.

Our triple-decker pancake tower, adorned with golden sauce, melting chocolate chips, and whipped butter and maple syrup on the side, was soft and fluffy. Delicious on its own, the caramel sauce and chocolate chips took the dish over the edge. We could have used more caramel sauce, but the syrup was a decent substitute. The bananas and walnuts balanced the dish’s richness, the latter also providing some crunch.

The Breakfast Club may initially reel you in with its 1980s vibe, but it really delivers with the food. If you want to skip the weekend crush, you may—in the spirit of the movie’s brain, jock, princess, criminal, and basket case—want to cut class or call in sick and catch brunch on a weekday. As our coffee mug succinctly noted: “Being bad never tasted so good.”

The Breakfast Club, 270 Western Ave., is open Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.; phone: 617-783-1212. Takeout is available. The restaurant accepts all major credit cards. Take a MBTA 57 bus from Commonwealth Avenue at Granby Street to N. Beacon Street at Cambridge Street and walk.

This is part of a weekly series featuring Boston lunch spots of interest to the BU community. If you have any suggestions for places we should feature, leave them in the Comment section below.

Kylie Obermeier can be reached at kylieko@bu.edu; follow her on Twitter at @kyliekobermeier.