2009-05-21
IHOP
-- Ad Frank, "The Five Days We Were Friends"
A new IHOP opened up in the building that housed the world's saddest Applebee's, on Providence Highway in Dedham. This is about a 15 minute drive away, and I couldn't be more pleased. I generally turn my nose up at chain restaurants, but I have a soft spot for the ones that do breakfast-at-all-hours, like IHOP, Denny's, and their stunted regional cousins like The Village Inn and Bickford's.
We went there for dinner tonight. I had a Belgian waffle. For dinner. Crazy!
Being in an IHOP makes me wildly, perversely nostalgic for my high school years. More so than the entire John Hughes canon, and the first two Crowded House records COMBINED.
When you grew up in the 'burbs, as I did, you invariably wound up in one of these restaurants at some late hour, with your friends, eating breakfast-for-dinner and feeling....not quite "grown up" as much as "a part of." You're piled into a booth, maybe two, eating pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches and omelettes and if you've come back from seeing "Rocky Horror," dawn isn't far from breaking. Maybe the boy you like is sitting near you. In a couple of months, you'll all head off to college, and into your lives. There'll be heartbreak and disappointment and loss.
But right now, you've got a twenty in your wallet, a Belgian waffle in front of you, and your friends. The future is wide open, and there's four kinds of syrup.
lisamcc at 10:02 p.m.
6 comments so far
Craig Bostick
2009-05-22 03:38:52
Beautiful!
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vikkitikkitavi
2009-05-22 15:39:43
I love this post.
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Jess
2009-05-22 15:54:47
I miss Bickford's more than you can possibly know. We have an iHOP, but it's just not the same. No apple pancake, for one. Plus, I'm pretty sure they put laxatives in their food. (I've exploded in more iHOP's than I can count) :(
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gbf
2009-05-23 03:40:08
I don't think the boy I liked was ever with me at IHOP. I think he was blowing the gym teacher while I had a Rootie Tootie Fresh and Fruity, which is really a funny name for a breakfast meal. Time to cry again.
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Michelle DiPoala
2009-05-28 19:10:22
This is a perfect piece of writing in every way.
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Lynette
2009-06-10 05:52:15
I like IHOP and Denny's and all that. But if you come down here to visit Jess and me? We'll take to you an all night joint that has killer breakfast any time. Right Jess? McC and Magnolias? And by the way, thanks for making me totally crave pancakes in the middle of the freaking NIGHT.
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