Restaurants

Including a popular Back Bay restaurant.

Buttermilk Beignets at Buttermilk & Bourbon. Buttermilk & Bourbon

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The time-honored brunch tradition may have taken a hit during the pandemic, but lunch is starting to resurface as more restaurants have hibernated and family and friends gather again over french toast and mimosas.

On Monday, OpenTable released its list of the 100 Best Brunch Restaurants in America for 2021, and three Massachusetts locations made it: The Aviary Restaurant & Bar, Buttermilk & Bourbon, and Ledger Restaurant & Bar.

The Aviary Restaurant & Bar in Swansea serves its highly rated brunch on Sundays. The sweet and savory dishes include a BLT omelette, huevos rancheros, and the nutty pananacakes with toasted almonds and whipped cream.

Boston’s Buttermilk & Bourbon, a southern restaurant in the heart of Back Bay, offers a weekend brunch of New Orleans-centric cuisine: lobster etouffée hand patties, shrimp to peel, low country scrambled eggs, and deep-fried beignets. There’s also a blackened Bloody Mary for slow sipping, as well as a soft serve mimosa that combines sorbet and prosecco.

In Salem, the Ledger Restaurant & Bar is open for Sunday brunch, where guests can find thick slices of French toast, pastrami hash, and chicken and waffles.

Other New England restaurants to make the list included The Bistro at LaBelle Winery Amherst in Amherst, NH, and Simon Pearce Restaurant in Quechee, Vt.

To calculate the top 100 brunch restaurants, OpenTable examined the diner ratings published between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. Qualified restaurants that met a minimum rating were then rated and based on the number of tags for which “brunch” was specified as a feature.

Check out the full list of America’s 100 Best Brunch Restaurants.

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