The Venue Clermont

FOOD

The food makes a persuasive case for staying through the breakfast-to-lunch handover. Made-to-order omelets and slow-roasted prime rib lead an American Sunday spread that gives both halves of brunch proper attention. Around those main attractions, the buffet carries the meal from breakfast pastries through salads to dessert. Supporting dishes vary; the live cooking and carving stations are the places to give your first attention.

Prime rib is the substantial centerpiece, slow-roasted and served at a chef-attended carving station. For roast enthusiasts, that is a good reason to arrive with lunch in mind. You can build a meal around the carved beef and garden salad, leaving the eggs for another round if they appeal. Brunch is unusually accommodating about such decisions. Nobody needs to establish whether this is technically their first or second meal of the day.

Salmon shares the carving and fish station, with dill salmon among the preparations. Baked fish with roasted peppers also appears among the changing hot dishes. Beef may command the carving station’s billing, but salmon and the changing fish selection give lunch another substantial main course.

On the breakfast side, omelets are cooked to order at the live station. Make that custom egg dish the starting point, then look to bacon and breakfast sausage in the hot chafing dishes for companions. Waffles also belong to the breakfast selection. Between the live egg station, the breakfast meats and the bakery, there is enough here to make an entire meal before taking on the roast.

Cinnamon and jam pastries give the bakery bar its sweeter appeal, alongside muffins and bagels. The toaster bar makes room for a more familiar breakfast habit within the spread. A bagel and an omelet suit a savory start; cinnamon or jam pastries are the detour for someone whose morning requires something sweet. There is no need to treat the whole bakery selection as a single course to be conquered.

The garden salad bar puts cucumber, tomato, cheese, croutons and dressings within reach, so the accompaniments to a main course need not all come from the hot dishes. Yogurt and berries occupy their own bar, useful for a fruit-minded start before the hot dishes. A bowl of yogurt and berries also works between the bakery and the richer sweets, if you would rather finish brunch on that note.

Dessert brings brownie triangles, chocolate petit fours and strawberries, with cookies elsewhere in the sweet selection. The small chocolate sweets invite a mixed dessert plate, especially if you prefer several little tastes to one large dessert. A brownie, a petit four and a strawberry is a perfectly respectable committee. The cookie bar can supply the final vote.

Iced tea and infused water come with brunch. Mimosas and Bloody Marys belong to a separate optional bottomless beverage package lasting 90 minutes; other drinks are available for purchase. That leaves a straightforward included drink choice alongside the option to make Sunday a cocktail occasion.