Americans often enjoy Sunday brunch, a funny meal in between breakfast and lunch, a grander version of the “elevenses” snack enjoyed in British Commonwealth nations but similar in content to the “second breakfast“ loved by Hobbits in The Shire. A leisure day meal, brunch often serves as a stand-in for both the early and the mid-day meal.
Now litteratus Howard Junker, of the journal Zyzzyva, brings us “lunner” a light meal between lunch and dinner. Riffing on an article in the San Francisco Business Times, noting that dining in that city is now an all-day affair that mixes business and pleasure with gluttony, Junker says:
In the view of today’s restaurateurs, [mid-afternoon dining is] a way to generate revenue during the lull between traditional meals—and to capture those who work on New York time.
Lunner is more programmatic. It offers all the benefits of high tea—a needed pick-me-up—with more promising beverages.
You can work through the morning and into the early afternoon, knock off when you get truly hungry, and then go back to the office and work, well fortified, until it’s time to go to dinner/the theater/concert/dive bar, without feeling rushed or stuffed.
Lunner could be a nice, less expensive alternative to the traditional business luncheon for your clients—a substantial snack accompanied by perhaps a little wine spritzer or a cold, refreshing glass of iced tea. It could also prove a more productive alternative for your team than the 4:30 beer bash on those special social occasions.
Lunner might catch on, though I doubt it will threaten the ascendency of afternoon tea, which in recent times has become the de rigeuer alternative to the formal business luncheon.
