Breakfast Systems

I love breakfasts. One of the things I could not get enough of in Montreal was that they had a breakfast restaurant on seemingly every corner and they all executed at a level utterly unheard of in BC. Hell, even a Smittys does a better breakfast than you’re likely to find in the lower mainland.

In my new place I live near a Cora, an IHOP and a De Dutch, all staffed by bored, laconic teenagers. Trying to get food in any of them on a weekend is a fool’s errand and a 2 hour project at least.

I’m a not incompetent chef and at least a few times when guests have offered to take us to breakfast I’ve simply made an elaborate breakfast because it’s a more efficient use of my time. It’s not a perfect system because not everybody can order exactly what they like: you’re getting a full English and you’re going to LIKE IT darn it - but it’s absolutely faster.

But there are some good spots (also: if you’ve got great BC breakfast restaurant tips let me know), one of which is the New Westminster IHOP.

Unlike most IHOPs it’s actually - and this is weird - run well, by people who seem to like what they’re doing? Maybe it pays well enough not to suffer massive turnover. I can hope, at least.

The difference is night and day. They’re always busy, even on weekdays, and they turn over tables with mechanical efficiency.

All of us have hit a Denny’s at a weird hour, been one of only two tables in the entire restaurant, and sat 75 minutes waiting for our order to slowly roll out, cold, from the kitchen, or been at that same Dennys when they’re busy and had breakfast take an eternity because they’re swamped and don’t know what to do.

This IHOP is reliably full and even with every table packed your meal hits your table in under 15 minutes.

That is a short order chef firing on all cylinders.

I am hungry and impatient, and fascinated with restaurant efficiency. I love it in restaurants high and low end.

I particularly like peering into the bowels of a McDonalds, it’s hardly a restaurant at all, it feels like watching a food operating system in motion.