Father's Day Brunch, Southern Comfort-Style

Celebrate the men in your life with a masculine brunch party featuring their favorite flavors and nodding to generations present and past.

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Photo By: ©She-N-He.com ©She-N-He.com

Photo By: She-N-He.com ©She-N-He.com

Photo By: ©She-N-He.com ©She-N-He.com

Photo By: ©She-N-He.com ©She-N-He.com

Photo By: ©She-N-He.com ©She-N-He.com

Photo By: ©She-N-He.com ©She-N-He.com

Photo By: ©She-N-He.com ©She-N-He.com

Party in Five: Father's Day Brunch

Celebrate the humble men in your life with a masculine brunch that highlights their favorite flavors –– and nods to generations present and past.


To throw this Southern comfort brunch, you'll need five essential ingredients: family photos (old and new), Bloody Marys, printable Father's Day cards, potted succulents and Virginia ham biscuits.

Father's Day Buffet

Depart from the typical steak-and-burgers Dad's Day meal by serving a buffet featuring Southern-style comfort foods. This party proves that brunch can be manly, especially when decorated with neutral, organic details. Use a sideboard or dining table to stage your spread.

No Fancy Florals

Tan terra-cotta pots and evergreen succulents form the perfect palette, set against a clean white-and-cream canvas. These modern, masculine plants add a pop of greenery to the buffet and freshness to the table. Even better, the pots can be moved to the patio after the meal, where they’ll be enjoyed all summer long.

Suit & Tie

Add a gentleman's touch to the table by adorning white spray-painted animals with "bow ties" made of uncooked pasta. Wrap twine around the center of a single piece of uncooked bow tie pasta (spray-painted a different color, like gold), then attach to the necks of the animal figurines using a hot glue gun for a playful accent. Choose animals based on Dad's interest, whether it be hunting, safari scouting or just playing with his loyal pup.

Ham It Up

Fill those hungry bellies with some hearty Southern sammies. Virginia ham biscuits are a delicious, easy-to-assemble offering and require little work during the party, as the biscuits can be baked in advance.

Get the Recipe: Virginia Ham Biscuits

Say Cheese

Why relegate mac and cheese to the winter? This recipe, filled with crispy bacon and generously topped with breadcrumbs, satisfies any time of year. Keep things simple by serving the dish in the skillet in which it was prepared.

Get the Recipe: Skillet Bacon Mac and Cheese

All in the Family

Dig up old black and white family photos –– and print black-and-white or sepia images of modern-day events –– and display them behind the buffet for a trip down memory lane in keeping with this party’s color scheme. Simply suspend a clothesline made of twine and hang the photos using wooden clothespins. Family members of all ages will enjoy hearing the memories and stories recalled by the old photos.

Beverages (Beyond Beer)

Brunch –– and any family holiday –– wouldn't be the same without its spiked drink star. Spicy Bloody Marys made with in-season tomatoes are the perfect accompaniment to a Southern summer meal, and they are the antithesis to sweet, bubbly Bellinis. Prepare pitchers of the beverage in advance and line up garnished glasses for self service. Dip the rims of the glasses in salt and freshly ground black pepper, and top with celery, olives, cornichons and cocktail onions.

Get the Recipe: Bloody Mary - A Pitcherful

A Dude's Dessert

Cap off your meal with the quintessentially Southern treat banana pudding, updated in Dad's honor to include smoky bourbon and spiced gingersnaps, instead of wafers. Serve the puddings in individual jars for easy distribution to a crowd — and to keep cleanup minimal.

Get the Recipe: Bourbon Banana Puddings

Good Gift Idea

Any coffee-loving dad will appreciate tools that will enable him to brew a better mug. Consider a French press or a drip coffeemaker like the hourglass-shaped one from Chemex featured here. Rather than give it to him wrapped, surprise him with it by breaking it in at the brunch.

Cup o' Joe

Cap off the hearty meal with a rich brew, displayed at a self-serve coffee station (in a beautiful carafe or any old pot) alongside mugs, cream or milk, and a variety of sugars or sweeteners.

Love Notes

Above all, don't forget your card for Dad, filled with sweet sentiments showing your gratitude. These downloadable Father’s Day cards are perfect for the occasion — simple, masculine and modern. Just print onto card-stock-weight kraft paper, cut to size, and personalize by writing your own message to Dad on the inside.


Download the Father's Day card template here.