Being a college student comes with the territory of midnight study sessions, 4 am bedtimes, and as a result, insufficient sleep. In the middle of the week, despite desperate desires to go to bed, sometimes, one has to bite the bullet and try to be as productive as possible. While forfeiting sleep to get work done is reasonable, we found ourselves getting into a bad habit of sleeping late Friday nights (knowing that we didn’t have to wake up early for class the next day) when we should have been using that time to catch up on sleep or at least not add to our sleep debt.

We needed to make a change. What could we do to compel ourselves to go to bed earlier Friday night and wake up earlier Saturday? The answer: good food. Towards the end of the semester, we started a tradition with our friend Katrina of meeting up 9 am Saturday morning to walk over to a brunch place of our choice. On two of our three trips, we found ourselves in Center City, a solid 30 minute “wake-me-up” on the way there and a much needed “walk-it -off” on the way back.

Our first adventure, however, was closer to Penn and actually on Drexel’s campus at the homely and hyped Sabrina’s Café. This place is notorious for their humongous portions, but hey, we’re not complaining! We ordered the Queen’s “Paint the Roses Red” Stuffed French Toast, the Jabberwocky’s “Talkie, Talkie” Mexi Special, and the Cheshire Cat’s “Cheeky” Special Pancakes. Sadly though, these elaborate names weren’t reflected in the presentation. Even so, the food was guiltily satisfying and we established the perfect equation for all of our future brunch meals to follow: 2 sweet + 1 savory (split three-way) = a well-rounded meal.

Our second brunch outing was much more of an adventure. It was a brunch crawl! We started off at Federal Doughnuts in Center City where we shared a blueberry muffin, strawberry lavender, and French toast doughnut. Then we moseyed along to Crumbs Bakeshop and indulged in fist-sized PB & J and Cherry Blossom cupcakes. The last stop: Parc where an egg white, ratatouille, and goat cheese omelet had our names on it. Two sweet and one savory! The golden combo.

For our final excursion, we had “fancy brunch” at Café Lift. Although the walk there was quite sketchy the plum tomato frittata, cannoli French toast, and lemon ricotta pancakes made the trek worth it.

Another tasty brunch eatery to note is Green Eggs Café. We’ve actually been here twice. Their red velvet pancakes are their signature dish but the chicken and waffles really hits the spot! Although menu-wise, we still prefer Café Lift, it’s the farthest from Penn, so when it comes to the total package, Green Eggs Café takes the (pan)cake.