Kill that Saturday night hangover in style with an Easter brunch at Steubens (above), Charlie Browns, Sputnik, Devil's Food Bakery or dozens of other Denver haunts.

Brunch is one of the best eating, and drinking, occasions of any week. It’s fun for all: Families chat after church. Busy groups of friends reconnect before a hectic week. Couples sip mimosas and bat eyelashes. Hungover partiers clutch coffee cups and pine for a hair-of-the-dog cure. All are united by a desire for breakfast, with the option of having lunch, as well.

If there’s a good weekend to have brunch, this is the one — brunch on Easter Sunday is a time-honored tradition. It’s going to be nuts out there, but here are a few fine places to consider raising a toast on this biggest of brunch days.

Steuben’s (523 E. 17th Ave.) is always a hit for brunch. The classic menu is a crowd-pleaser, which explains the weekend hordes in the cavernous restaurant. The full bar ensures that drinks are plentiful. There’s a wide range of standard, quality cocktails, from an old-fashioned to a lime rickey.

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At Nyala Ethiopian Cuisine in Fort Collins, every dish is always ready to share. Photo from nyalafc.com.

Ask for a fork if you must, but the best way to capture the full flavor of Ethiopian food is to sop it up with torn-off pieces of injera, the spongy bread that serves as plate, napkin and utensil.

Chef Etage Asrat opened Nyala Ethiopian Cuisine in 2004, and still imports many of her spices from Addis Ababa, where she was born. She came to Fort Collins in 1991 with her husband and three young daughters, and earned a degree in computer science from Regis University.

Opening a restaurant was not in her life plan. But sharing food has always been. “My mom had a bed and breakfast back home. She was cooking for everyone,” says Asrat. “I see people here not sharing food, even mothers and daughters, and I say, ‘do you want to share my food?’ If I cook, I hope maybe they can share my culture.”

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