IHOP Restaurant®

Ut Jentaculum Libertas*


(Picture provided for those of you that have never seen an IHOP® before.)

http://www.ihop.com/
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVZCEFQXUNs
 

I made my annual breakfast trek over to IHOP Restaurant® (the one over on Lombard Street in the Marina/Cow Hollow) for my free** birthday breakfast (see last 'blog-entry from June 20th, 2010). It may not be Dottié's Trué blué café, but it is still a free meal (and pretty decent for the pri¢e, Ray). IHOP® has a new corporate slogan/deal that they are calling "Pancake Revolution ~ Pancakes to the People" (right on?); somehow, I don't quite think this is what John Lennon (or even bad Vlad Lenin) had in mind (hence the above Beatles video/song from EweToob.)

Once again, I parked over by the Lombard gate of the Presidio and saw about 12 of the Wild Parrots of San Francisco flying overhead and heard dozens (hundreds?) more in the tall eucalyptus trees where they roost. Now, granted, Wild Parrots are better than mangy ol' pigeons any day; however, the Wild Parrots population is rapidly growing in San Francisco; I just wonder how long it is before they are considered pests, too.

This was truly an "International" breakfast this morning as there were a German couple at the next table over and an Australialand gent (whom I called a New Zealander by accident; oops, sorry, mate!) two tables away; plus my server, Angelica, was from Guatemala.

The free breakfast deal calls for either the Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruity®, Mr. Penniman, or one of equal or lesser value. I opted for the new ("for a limited time, at participating restaurants") Double Cheese Tortilla Scramble ~ basically scrambled eggs with lots of cheese (two types: yellow and white ~ they don't really specify what kind), corn tortilla chips, and a salsa of some kind; and I made it a combo with pancakes and hashbrowns. I also had a large glass of orange juice. I knew that their coffee was just black and hot, so I had a cuppa Peet's® House Blend (also a freebie from a leftover Christmas gift certificate) afterward at the shop on Chestnut a few blocks away.




This was no Chava's Chilaquiles by any means, but it really wasn't that bad; the real pleasant surprise was the salsa ~ muy sabroso, but not too picante.

IHOP® offers as condimentary supplementation: Tabasco® (the standard red) and Cholula®. I actually had brought some of my own hot sauces and went with a little Roland's® Piri Piri with Lemon on the hashbrowns, and some blueberry syrup on the pancakes.

Free food and coffee, what's not to like?

Carpe syrupum!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: (free) Double Cheese Tortilla Scramble ~ 6.2; (free) Peet's® House Blend ~ 6.5


*(Completely random, stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:
 
The Latin motto of one of my old Air Force Squadron, 6916th Electronic Security Squadron ~ Home of the Prodded Professionals, was "Ut Fiat Libertas", which means "Freedom Through Vigilance" ~ or something close enough to that. This was always jokingly translated as: "One Free Fiat". What else can you expect from a bunch of cunning linguists?!
 
So, I suppose the title to today's 'blog-entry loosely translates as: "Freedom through breakfast", "From breakfast, liberty/freedom", "Ah, breakfast, that is freedom"… or even "One Free Breakfast". Feel free to supply your own translation, Coach O'Neil.)
 
**(Well, up to $8.99; however, even with the large orange juice, I still got out of there for just $1.02, but don't worry, I tipped Angelica as if it were the entire $10.01.)