IHOP Restaurant®

"I will have the annual freebie Mr. Smith, Ms. Paolantonio, Fresh 'N Mr. Penniman® World Famous Pancake Combo."

http://www.ihop.com/

Once again I made it over to IHOP Restaurant® for my annual freebie breakfast (see last 'blog-entry from June 18th, 2011). This is a pretty sweet deal (pun intended) where IHOP® gives you a free breakfast on your birthday (it has to be used within the month of your birthday). Currently, they will comp you up to $9.69 for any meal of your choice, which is the price of their Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity®*[1].

I parked over by the Presidio Lombard Gate again and walked the 4-5 blocks to the restaurant. It's okay as this was a straight shot and not on the twisty-windy portion of Lombard Street.

Wild Parrots of San Francisco interlude/update:
 
I saw and heard about two dozen of my fine-feathered friends high up in the tall eucalyptus trees in that part of the Presidio. It looked like the conures were having a noisy morning dispute with a few large blackbirds. The smaller birds seemed to be winning the argument and had them vastly outnumbered, too.

In case I have never really specified about this particular variety of small parrot that are now feral in San Francisco. They are mostly Cherry-headed Conures or Blue-crowned Conures from Central and South America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-masked_Parakeet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-crowned_Parakeet

For breakfast I simply went with the special that was on my coupon: Rooty (that would be the Mr. Smith, aka Rudy, portion) Tooty (Ms. Paolantonio) Fresh 'N Fruity (Little Richard, of course) ~ Two eggs, two bacon strips, two pork sausage links, and two buttermilk pancakes crowned with cool strawberry topping, warm blueberry or cinnamon apple compote and whipped topping. I also ordered a large glass of orange juice. Don't worry, just because the main meal was a "freebie", I made sure to tip my server, Gabi, accordingly… now what is 15% of $2.00 for the glass of juice?

I had this sans the dead, decaying porky products and they substituted hashbrowns for me at no extra charge (What is 0% of zero?). I had the eggs scrambled and went with the cinnamon apple compote pancakes. This was really nothing special (it's IHOP®, it is what you expect it to be); it was a good enough meal and it was very filling. Plus, you can't beat the price.

IHOP® only offers for condimentary supplementation Tabasco® (the standard red) and Cholula® (which is a pretty nice addition for an "International" restaurant chain). I came prepared and went with some HP® Guinness®[2] (Thanks, Cindy!) on the hashbrowns and some Serious Food… Silly Prices Mango Hot Sauce (Thanks also, Cindy!) on the eggs.

Now I suppose I could always get a free breakfast any time I want at IHOP® and call it the "Rooty Tooty Chewy 'N Screwy"; however, you really can't fail, Rudy, with an honest freebie meal and it beats drinking brew for breakfast any day…

A-wop-bop-a-loo-mop, a-lop-bam-boom![3]


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:  Rudy Tootie Fresh 'N Little Richard ~ 5.9


[1] They actually have this with an asterisk on the menu:
 
"*NOTICE: ITEMS MARKED WITH AN * MAY BE COOKED TO ORDER. CONSUMING RAW OR UNDERCOOKED MEATS, POULTRY, SEAFOOD, SHELLFISH, OR EGGS MAY INCREASE YOUR RISK OF FOODBOURNE ILLNESS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE CERTAIN MEDICAL CONDITIONS."
 
So I made sure to ask for my pancakes "well-done".
 
[2] I do not know how well this would go in coffee, Colin.
 
[3] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:
 
I am pretty sure that this is Italiano Siciliano dialect that is somewhat translated as: "If you steal my broom, you will be sleeping with the fishes, Fredo!"