The Huntington offers an array of dishes for brunch events. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
A glass dome 36 feet overhead. Palms climbing toward the ceiling. Ferns curling at the base of planters. And somewhere nearby, the roses beginning.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens will hold its 2026 Spring Brunch on Easter Sunday, April 5, in the Rose Hills Foundation Garden Court — a sheltered pavilion on its San Marino campus that trades the institution’s usual posture of scholarly repose for a buffet table and spring blooms. Two seatings are available: 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 3 p.m. Ticket details had not been released at press time; The Huntington is directing inquiries to huntington.org/event/spring-brunch or (626) 405-2100.
The Huntington sits in San Marino, adjacent to Pasadena — one of the San Gabriel Valley’s most consequential cultural institutions and, for most of its visitors, simply a destination. The Garden Court, which opened as part of the institution’s education and visitor center in 2015, is one of its few spaces where the line between indoors and outdoors genuinely blurs. Lush with tropical palms and ferns and shielded by its distinctive glass dome, it is, according to The Huntington, “a beautiful weatherproof location with an outdoor/indoor feel.” On Easter morning, it will feel like the gardens have come inside.
The brunch arrives during a significant season for the institution. The Huntington has launched the groundbreaking of its Library/Art Building renovation — a $126.6 million project that President Karen R. Lawrence has called “the most ambitious building project in The Huntington’s history” — this same spring. The library exhibition halls are dark for the duration of construction, with rare materials from the collection now on view through the “Stories from the Library” series running in the Huntington Art Museum through 2028. Current exhibitions, “From Brontë to Butler” and “Looking to Learn,” are on view through June 15, 2026. The 207-acre campus’s gardens, galleries, and programs remain open throughout.
The Spring Brunch is a buffet, with what The Huntington describes as “an array of dishes.” Specific menu details had not been released at press time. Reservations will be required; April 5 falls within The Huntington’s designated Spring Break and Easter peak season, when advance tickets are mandatory for all visitors. Parking is free but may fill quickly on peak days; carpooling or rideshare is recommended. The Huntington is open Wednesday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the campus accessible to brunch guests who wish to spend the remainder of the day in the gardens.
Lawrence, writing on the one-year anniversary of the Eaton Fire in January 2026, framed The Huntington’s role in terms that apply beyond the research library: “For The Huntington, this moment has prompted deeper reflection on what it means to serve as a place of preservation, learning, and refuge in a community experiencing profound loss.”
The brunch makes no claim to that weight. It is a meal, in a beautiful room, on a spring morning.
For reservations and ticket information: huntington.org/event/spring-brunch or (626) 405-2100. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108. Open Wednesday through Monday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
The Huntington on Easter Sunday — between the roses and the palms, under a dome full of diffused California light — is simply one of the better places to be.
SPRING BRUNCH AT THE HUNTINGTON Date & Time: Sunday, April 5, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. & 1:30 p.m. Venue: Rose Hills Foundation Garden Court, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108. Phone Number: (626) 405-2100. Website: https://www.huntington.org/event/spring-brunch
