That was coffee?

Now that I am writing about food, I am reminded of yesterday’s breakfast meeting at IHOP.

No food surprises – pancakes with warm syrup, eggs, bacon: all as expected at a fast-food restaurant that specializes in breakfast and has “pancakes” in its name. And, at $6, the price was right.

But the coffee? Was it really coffee? And it cost $2? Oh, my! If, like me, you find it difficult to pass a Starbucks without stopping – and where you can get a wonderful coffee for $1.50 -- my advice to you is to skip the IHOP “coffee”. Next time I go, it will be water for me!

Lunch / Review

Park Café, Duluth, Georgia

Plusses: Quaint house in quaint downtown setting, friendly waitress, food.
Minuses: Traffic/parking, host, food, prices.

I am going to give Park Café three stars after having lunched there today with a guest.

The host was unfriendly, intimating it would have been better if we had had reservations – not a bad point, considering that the place rapidly filled up – and we were then given the worst table in the place, until we asked for a different one, which the waitress cheerfully made available.

My food choice was fried green tomatoes. Having enjoyed them elsewhere with goat cheese and remoulade, I was intrigued by the description (“warm brie, candied pecans, bacon balsamic emulsion”) and it took me a few bites before I began to enjoy the meal. The tomatoes were perfectly fried (topped by a few spinach leaves – what was that all about?), the pecans were nice and the emulsion “sold” the dish. The bits in it may have been bacon, or carrot, or pepper or (red) tomato: impossible to tell. The brie was missing, so I’ll never know what it might have contributed to the taste.

My guest had the fried shrimp po-boy, with a side of fresh fruit (melon, I think), which she said she enjoyed. To my eye, it looked a little, well, “po”.

All in all, this, a first visit for both my guest and myself, was not a bad experience, but $30+ for two (including one iced tea, one water, and no coffee or dessert) is too expensive for a middle of the week casual business lunch. Also, each item was $1 more than published on the establishment’s web site. Also “po”!

I tried to post this on Yelp!, but the effort failed.

Where Are You At?

A local acquaintance, a Northerner married to a Southerner, once told me that during the first few years of residence in Atlanta, she often got lost on area roads and by-ways, necessitating a phone call to her husband, who would invariably ask her to tell him where she was “at”. “Where are you at?”, he would ask – or, more precisely, “Wear-yat?”

“What’s that all about,” she asked me, “that ‘at’?” I told her it was part of that renowned Southern charm, but don’t think she bought it.

I was reminded of that conversation this morning, when I opened the newspaper. The paper that arrives in my driveway six mornings a week is a publication I subscribe to in major part for its language. It is very well written, with the British syntaxes I learned to appreciate when I lived in England.

One story I enjoyed reading this morning is about a brighter employment outlook for new MBAs. Then my eyes were drawn to a graphic at the bottom of the page, that documented research among 2007 MBA graduates. One graph stated that the research had been conducted in “85 different countries survey respondents were based in”, while another explained it had involved “153 different business schools worldwide where alumni studied at”. “In”? “At”? I’m not used to seeing dangling prepositions in my newspaper! What’s that all about?

Anyway, I trust my readers know their grammar better than this, no matter where they’re “at”. :-)