Xpress correspondent Michael Franco continues his quest for late-night dining spots with a visit to MG Road.
Night Brunch: Sunday midnight-2 a.m.
Dishes: $5-9
No kidding. At MG Road, Sunday brunch begins at midnight. Chef de cuisine Tom Griffin says, “Kyle the bar manager and I were just joking around one night and talking about how much we liked brunch, but both of us were usually either too hung over or tired to actually wake up in time to go somewhere for brunch, or at least be motivated enough to get out the door. So we said, ‘Why can’t we still have brunch?’ That’s when we decided to do the Night Brunch.”
With all the spice floating around the Chai Pani/MG Road kitchen, this is no ordinary brunch. For starters, there’s a breakfast taco that uses a moist and flaky paratha — an Indian flat bread that’s a cross between tortilla and croissant — to wrap a huge portion of fluffy scrambled eggs, house-made sausage and chopped tomatoes.
Then there’s the Two for Me, Naan for You dish whose name alone reflects the fun the guys at MG Road are having with this unique dining niche. It consists of two sunny-side-up eggs topped by a naan so fluffy, it’s like a pancake, which is further topped by a swoon-inducing keema (a type of Indian chili made with lamb), paneer, hot sauce and Kashmiri-chili Hollandaise. The heat sends tremors through the satisfying earthiness of the dish to wake your taste buds.
Owner Meherwan Irani says that although the night brunch concept has been popular, he doesn’t plan to expand it to other nights. “That’s the cool part about it,” he says, mentioning that recently he’s been stopped on the street by people who give the thumbs-up and simply say, “Night Brunch.” “I look at this as a tip of the hat to the service industry and to our regular customers and to those hard-core people that want to come out at midnight on a Sunday night. It’s for them.”
— Michael Franco is an Asheville freelance writer.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.