A new restaurant in town is creating a lot of buzz.

IHOP.

That’s right friends, the International House of Pancakes. The one and only.

No, that’s not quite true. There’s already one 6 miles down the road. There has been for a LONG time. But of course, new is always better in the land of plenty. Except it’s not. It’s just a new wrapper for the same stuff.

So picture me puzzled. Why on Earth is IHOP suddenly hot? The last time I thought about IHOP – which was a LONG time ago – I saw it as a place people went to nurse their hangovers. Hell, Cheryl hadn’t been to an IHOP since she made a hasty retreat with a young Beth after another customer got really upset about a dirty fork and punched the waitress in the face.

I might have stuck around for the conclusion. (I hate cliffhangers.) But Cheryl had the good sense to rush Beth out of the building like a Secret Service detail. She didn’t stick around long enough to see if the customer sold her opinions a la carte.

That’s my idea of an IHOP experience.

So again I ask you, why?

Naturally my mom wanted to go, so we went Saturday evening.

Nobody got punched in the face and no one looked hungover, so it wasn’t so bad after all. I had the pancakes. How can you not?