The brunch menu at Fats Chicken and Waffles includes biscuits and gravy and shrimp and grits.
The brunch menu at Fat's Chicken and Waffles includes biscuits and gravy and shrimp and grits. Fat's

Is Tuesday too early in the week to be thinking about brunch? Considering I laid in bed this morning for a few moments fantasizing about the weekend, briefly ignoring both my alarm and the child calling out for me from the next room, I'm going to go with no.

New restaurants, of which Seattle has many, often wait a few months before adding weekend brunch service. Now that they're up and running, a spate of places around town are offering new late-morning (and hangover-friendly) food options, serving everything from fried rice and Bloody Marys to burgers and beers, and biscuits and, um, Pedialyte.

At Fat's Chicken and Waffles in the Central District, the brunch menu appropriately features chicken and waffles, but also Southern dishes such as biscuits and Andouille sausage gravy, shrimp and grits, and an intriguing pimento cheese BLT (you can add eggs to most plates for $2). Having recently eaten at Fat's, I can testify that chef Patrick Dours' homemade gravy is really good. Also, it's worth noting that all brunch entrées are just $8, which is a hell of a deal in this town. Along with the dubious hangover cure Pedialyte (available with or without alcohol), Fat's is also serving $10 carafes of mimosas.

Capitol Hill's Nue, whose Chengdu chicken wings I enjoyed quite a bit back in September, has taken those spicy, tasty things, added a waffle and maple syrup, and put it on their recently launched brunch menu. Nue's global mix of street food also includes Israeli shakshuka—eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce—a dish I love to make at home, but rarely see on menus. (Bonus: They're serving the shakshuka with their own housemade zhug, a bright, Middle Eastern hot sauce made with fresh serrano peppers, cilantro, and garlic.) I'm also happy to see Tosilog on the menu, a classic Filipino breakfast combination of cured, sweet pork, garlic fried rice, and fried eggs.

Pioneer Square's Kraken Congee, whose Filipino-influenced dishes are among the best of its Pan-Asian offerings, is starting its Sunday brunch this weekend. The lifeblood of Kraken's menu, rice porridge, is already considered by most of Asia to be one of the most popular and comforting breakfast foods, so the restaurant is well-poised to do this meal well. The menu isn't finalized yet, but Kraken has hinted that they might be serving champorado, another classic Filipino breakfast of rice porridge made with chocolate, sugar, and evaporated and/or condensed milk. (Will Kraken also serve its champorado with the traditional accompaniment of tuyo, freshly fried, salted, dried—and very, very fragrant—sardines? I can only hope.)

Finally, the Central District's Two Doors Down, from the owners of popular neighborhood bar the Bottleneck Lounge, have launched a somewhat more traditional brunch menu—that is, if burgers and beer are more familiar to you. The restaurant's full menu of classic, creative burgers and local beers is now available starting at 9 a.m. on weekends. They've also created some new dishes, including the gloriously overwhelming-sounding breakfast poutine, made with white gravy, crumbled bacon, and "loads of cheese curds." But I'm most intrigued by the made-from-scratch ciderhouse doughnut holes—gluten-free pastries made with craft cider, dusted with cinnamon sugar, and apple butter and housemade jam.