Breakfast at IHOP in Joisey? Fuh-Gedda-Boud-Dit
New Jersey is the known for their diners and diners are known for their breakfasts. One can feast on a hearty concoction of creamed chipped beef, better known as S.O.S or munch on Scrapple patties made from everything but the oink. Many opt for the famous breakfast sandwich consisting of Taylor ham, fried egg and cheese served in a soft Kaiser roll with or without Ketchup. New Jersey diners offer countless combinations of omelets, pancakes and waffles and we can’t forget the unlimited, never ending fresh hot coffee always poured before you mug is near empty. Your booth seat snuggles your “tush” comfortably thanks to the thousands of patrons before you. It’s hard not to notice the diner staff constantly moving in some form of organized chaos serving food, cleaning, refilling salt shakers or making fresh coffee. In lightning speed your breakfast arrives piping hot and looks so much like a masterpiece you hate to disturb the contents.
Recently, IHOP came to the neighborhood and my first thought was that the franchise owner must be insane for choosing a location surrounded by several popular diners. In order to compete, this IHOP would have to serve some serious and spectacular feasts so, to satisfy my curiosity, I gave it a try. Maybe I had a senior moment expecting a high quality meal but nothing differentiated this IHOP from all the rest. Dirty floors, poor service, warm coffee from stagnant urns, cold and strange looking scrambled eggs, waffles that emulated frozen Eggos, undercooked pancakes and fake pancake syrup sitting in a sticky grizzly bottles.
It seems crazy that with all the great diners in New Jersey one would opt to eat franchised gruel for breakfast.
Thinking about IHOP for breakfast? Fuh-Gedda-Boud-Dit
I must admit, the diners in New Jersey and New York all seem to have good food and good service at reasonable prices. I know this from personal experience, gained from many business trips to those locations before I retired from a small company that manufactures cameras, calculators and copiers. I really can’t comment on the breakfasts, however, because I usually suffered the hotel fare in the mornings for the sake of expediency. I went to diners mostly for dinner. It was during one these dinners in the diner, where nothing could be finer, except maybe ham ‘n’ eggs in Carolina, that I first learned that there are people in this wonderful country of ours who have not yet discovered the delightful Southern tradition of sweetened iced tea. That was somewhat of a shock to this old country boy, who had never been outside the state of Georgia prior to being hired by C****N. I don’t count my time in the Marines…we never drank tea anyway.
Let’s get back to breakfast. New Jersey diner breakfasts may be great, I just can’t say. New Jersey hotel breakfasts are mediocre, that I can say. But both seriously lack one very important thing: GRITS! No decent breakfast is ever served without grits. Never. Ever.
IHOP, Waffle House, Huddle House, Denny’s, Shoney’s and all those aforementioned diners – if’n ye ain’t got grits, fergit it!