Roots Café in South End is now serving an all-day brunch menu. Roots launched first as a food truck in 2011, then eventually grew to three trucks before selling them to become a full-service catering company in 2015. Just over two years ago, chef and owner Craig Barbour was taking his dog to the vet when he noticed the former Cluck and Cup space in South End was available for lease. He decided to turn Roots into a café.

Barbour noticed that customers were often seeking breakfast items, such as bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches or the breakfast bowl with quinoa, corn, black beans, and a fried egg, during lunch hours. After a few years of operating like a traditional restaurant with separate breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus, Barbour decided to close the restaurant for dinner and instead serve an all-day menu of the former lunch and breakfast menus.

“We decided we do breakfast and brunch stuff well, and everybody loves it, so let’s just give the people what they want,” he says.

The new hours are from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends. Our favorite from the lunch menu, the Carolina pastrami, a house-made pastrami sandwich on rye with slaw, remains on the menu. Both that sandwich and a breakfast version — pastrami with a fried egg and provolone cheese — can now be ordered any time of day.

In the future, Barbour hopes to open in the evenings again with a cocktail-focused experience. He says he’s currently working with a local bartender to determine what that might look like, and whether it is branded as Roots or takes on another identity in the evenings. The cocktails will be unpretentious, he says, and a relaxing place for those who want to enjoy a good drink without heading to a crowded restaurant or bar. We’ll keep you posted on that piece. —Kristen Wile

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