Brunch with Bottomless Mimosas at the Jealous Monk in the Olde Mistick Village

Brunch with Bottomless Mimosas at the Jealous Monk every Sunday morning in Mystic, when the European-style social hall better known for its 32 beer taps trades Saturday night for eggs, home fries, and a steady stream of sparkling orange cocktails.

Brunch runs from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Sunday, making this one of those rare CT Beacon events without a real ending date. It isn’t a holiday brunch, monthly special or seasonal promotion. Jealous Monk and the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce continue to list it as a standing Sunday event.

And the bottomless mimosas aren’t merely an occasional special attached to the meal. Olde Mistick Village itself calls Sunday brunch with bottomless mimosas a local favorite.

That’s reason enough to give this recurring Mystic tradition a proper place on the calendar.

A Beer Hall Does Brunch Differently

Jealous Monk occupies Building 20 at Olde Mistick Village, but step inside and the inspiration is considerably farther from Connecticut.

The restaurant was designed as a contemporary take on the European beer hall and social garden. There’s a huge barrel-vaulted ceiling overhead, old-world paintings on the walls and long communal tables intended to make the room feel more social than a conventional restaurant dining room.

Its regular identity revolves around beer. Jealous Monk maintains 32 rotating draft lines, supplemented by bottles, cans, wine and cocktails, while the kitchen leans into comfort food with Belgian frites, house-made sausages, burgers and dishes influenced by the beer-hall setting.

Sunday morning changes the equation.

The doors open at 10:30 a.m. — an hour earlier than on most weekdays — specifically as brunch begins.

Instead of trying to turn itself into a delicate brunch cafe for a few hours, Jealous Monk largely keeps its personality intact. It’s still a social hall, only now the table might be covered with eggs and breakfast potatoes while the drinks are coming from a mimosa rather than a beer tap.

More Than a Mimosa Stop

The brunch menu is its own thing rather than the regular lunch menu with a couple of eggs added.

Jealous Monk’s current website confirms a dedicated Sunday brunch menu, although the restaurant presents that menu as an image and individual dishes can change. Current online ordering also lists a breakfast sandwich made with bacon, egg and American cheese on a toasted bun with home fries.

Past published brunch menus show how Jealous Monk has traditionally approached the meal: familiar breakfast food mixed with the restaurant’s German and beer-hall influences. Dishes have included Belgian waffles, steak and eggs, breakfast burritos, Benedicts, short-rib hash, biscuits and gravy and house-made sausage alongside items such as weisswurst, schnitzel and bratwurst.

Because menus and prices change, those older dishes shouldn’t be treated as a guarantee of what will be served on any particular Sunday. What hasn’t changed is the idea behind the brunch: hearty food rather than a stripped-down continental breakfast.

Then there are the mimosas.

The restaurant and Olde Mistick Village both currently advertise bottomless mimosas as part of Sunday brunch. Neither current official page publishes the mimosa price online, so that’s one detail worth checking with the restaurant before arriving rather than relying on an old menu or social-media post.

A Social Hall Built for Lingering

The setting may be as important to this particular brunch as the menu.

Jealous Monk’s large communal tables were deliberately designed for conversation, and the restaurant adds board games, pinball and old-school video games to the indoor space.

Outside is an expansive beer garden with picnic-table seating, games and a distinctive fire-pit rock.

That gives Sunday brunch a different personality depending on the season. A cold-weather visit can mean settling beneath the barrel-vaulted ceiling with a group around one of the large tables. During warmer weather, the garden makes considerably more sense for anyone inclined to turn brunch into a longer Sunday outing.

It’s also a brunch that doesn’t require everyone at the table to participate in the mimosa part. Jealous Monk is a full restaurant, and its location in Olde Mistick Village makes the event workable for mixed groups spending the day together.

Brunch in a Village That Wasn’t Supposed to Exist

There’s a bit of local history outside the restaurant doors.

The property beneath Olde Mistick Village was once farmland. Martin Olson purchased it in 1963 with plans to construct a conventional shopping mall, only to be advised that the local population wasn’t large enough to support one.

His children, twins Jerry and Joyce Olson, eventually pursued something much stranger and more distinctive.

Construction began in 1972 on a shopping village modeled after a 1720s New England community, complete with a meeting house, town green, duck pond, gazebo and individually designed buildings. The walking paths and landscaping were deliberately planned, and no two buildings were supposed to look exactly alike.

Olde Mistick Village officially opened Sept. 11, 1973, with more than 400 people attending the dedication.

More than half a century later, the experiment has grown into a walkable collection of more than 40 shops and eateries and one of Mystic’s busiest visitor destinations.

That makes the location particularly useful on a Sunday.

Brunch doesn’t have to be the day’s entire plan.

The 1 p.m. Problem Solves Itself

Jealous Monk stops serving brunch at 1 p.m., but you’re already inside Olde Mistick Village.

Walk the paths. Browse the independent shops. Circle the duck pond. Grab something sweet. Or cross the road and continue the day at Mystic Aquarium.

That’s arguably what makes this recurring event more useful than the original calendar description suggested.

Bottomless mimosas are the hook, but the location turns brunch into the beginning of a Mystic Sunday rather than its destination and endpoint.

For locals, it can become the kind of ritual that doesn’t require checking an events calendar at all.

For visitors, it’s an easy answer to a more complicated question: what do we do Sunday morning before spending the rest of the day in Mystic?

Start with brunch.

The mimosas can keep coming until 1.

More information and the current brunch menu are available at the Event Website link below.

Details

Event: Sunday Brunch with Bottomless Mimosas
Schedule: Every Sunday
Time: 10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.
Venue: Jealous Monk, Building 20 at Olde Mistick Village
Address: 27 Coogan Blvd., Mystic, CT 06355
Brunch: Dedicated Sunday brunch menu with bottomless mimosas available
Bottomless Mimosa Price: Not currently published on Jealous Monk’s official website; check with the restaurant for current pricing and terms
Setting: European-style social hall and beer garden with communal tables, games and outdoor seating
Parking: Free parking is available throughout Olde Mistick Village
Restaurant Sunday Hours: 10:30 a.m.–9 p.m.
Phone: 860-536-6665
Chamber Event Contact: Park Hersant, 646-647-9452
Email: operations@jmmystic.com

 

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.