Pannekoeken!
saturday we drove around looking for an appropriate breakfast place. there were a few simple qualifications. the place had to be: a) open for business, b) not have a line up the wazoo, c) still be serving breakfast... we tried victor's, international market square, sunny side up, bryant lake bowl. it was at this point that i threw my hands up and directed the boy to a land we seldom visit - the suburbs.
they had closed down my beloved schlotsky's about a year ago now. it was across from my shrink's office and sometimes the only motivation that really made me show up for appointments. i noticed that after this mighty tree had been felled that a pannekoeken huis had sprung up in its place.
so that noisy den of pancakes is where we found ourselves on saturday "morning". it was a bit scary to behold the group that frequents those places on weekends. the idea is that this is an authentic dutch pancake house. some of the servers even have the balls to shout "pannekoeken!" as they make their way through the swinging doors into the dining room. that little bit is their thing, after all. McDonald's has it's arches, Burger King makes it your way right away and Pannekoeken scares you into your booth by screaming "pancake" at you in a foreign language.
i mentioned to the boy that due to my years of experience as a server i had some luck at guessing what kind of salad dressing a person would want. he jumped on this statement immediately and so i guessed at our waitress's pick.
can you believe that he asked the waitress? can you also believe that i answered correctly with "ranch"? all very exciting, i tell you. it is just very hard for the boy to take any of my boastful statements at face value.
that's fine... he'll eventually figure out just how cool i am.
