Decadent meals like the “Grill Oscar Eggs Benedict” from Nick and Sam’s in Dallas are a brunch staple. (Courtesy of Bambooleasing.com )

At about 9 a.m. on Sunday morning one can hear the faint sound of back doors unlocking to restaurants in uptown.

Cooks are getting ready for the day, wait staff are putting on ties and aprons and hosts are clearing off the previous night’s seating list while the tired, groggy partiers of Saturday night are just waking up to the sun.

By 10 a.m., there’s a line forming in front of Nick & Sam’s Grill with people passing around small cups of coffee and mini muffins. Breadwinners already has a 45-minute wait. Del Frisco’s valet is overwhelmed. It looks chaotic, but in the midst of it all people sit at tables content with their bread, mimosas and sunglasses, for no one has built up the courage to face the sunlight.

This, my friends, is Sunday brunch. The ever so important meal that Dallas takes part in to debrief about the weekend, and ask advice on how to keep one’s job once pictures get posted from the previous night.

There are several groups keen to brunch: the girl and her gay friends, the stylish couple, the “besties,” the one-night-stand-gone-good and of course the occasional student with their mother. Each is welcome at every establishment.

Brunch is an essential part to weekend life in our little section of Dallas. In fact, some would say it’s the most important meal of the week.

For gay men, brunch is sometimes a rite of passage. I remember my first invitation to Nick & Sam’s my first semester at SMU. I was with a group of slightly older guys who volunteered to show me around Dallas. They are now some of my best friends and young mentors. An invitation to go to brunch with them felt like an invitation to tea with the queen. I was almost being presented to the world with them. Although somewhat silly, it was then an exciting experience.

For many of the ladies, brunch is where you have to have what my mother calls, “a little hair of the dog.” The champagne flowed freely the night before, and the only way to make that little headache go away is to have a tad more in a mimosa. Of course, the boyfriend always pays which they don’t mind one bit, and it just feels nice to get out of those club clothes and exchange them for jeans and a nice shirt.

I’ve even seen (much to my surprise) the bro-brunch. Boys in shorts, hats and T-shirts emerging from the man caves in which they crashed the night before – sadly solo.

Yes, brunch is an exciting time to people watch and catch up with old, and often times new, friends.

It doesn’t compare to the traditional Sunday lunch at the house, or have the same feel as a Friday night dinner party. Nonetheless, it’s becoming the new place to meet, mingle and network.

Grandma is even in on the deal, because yes, even she enjoys a Bloody Mary now and then. And everyone loves to see grandma with a drink in hand.

For many of you, you understand all that I’ve said. And for those of you who have no clue what I’m saying, I think it’s time you went out, got a table and sat down for your first Sunday brunch. I’ll see you with a mimosa and muffin in hand.

Graves is a junior majoring in communication studies and religious studies.