Original Pancake House

After running the Army 10-miler, I treated myself to brunch at the Original Pancake House in Falls Church, Virginia. It's a chain that I'd return to. It has locations spread across the country. It wasn't out-of-this world, but there are so many creative pancake varieties on the menu, that I want to go back and try them. Most importantly, it has really decent coffee. Courtesy of my friends sharing, I tried three different types of pancakes. Gingerbread, pumpkin, and wheat germ with pecan. My friends preferred the wheat germ pancakes, which were packed with pecans. I thought that they were fine, but liked the gingerbread ones the most even if they were a bit tricky. How can a pancake be tricky, you ask? Well, I thought that a gingerbread pancake would be dark and molasses-y, but these pancakes were more just ginger-flavored pancakes. Really tasty, but not like any gingerbread I've ever had. The pumpkin pancakes were "fine." Other observations. The bacon is nice and thick and crispy, but the eggs were a bit weird. I ordered them fried over hard and they came in this unnatural looking omelet form; they reminded me of Waffle House eggs. Don't get me wrong; Waffle House has a special place in my heart, but there's something about the cooking spray it uses that makes the eggs taste a little off. I want to try the apple pancakes and the Dutch Baby pancakes and the crepes!

Brunch at Chef Geoff's

So, it's been a long, long while. So much eating out, so little posting. I went to brunch with a group after the Army 10 Miler. No, I didn't run. I was just there for the food! We went to Chef Geoff's downtown. It's a good choice if you forgot to make a reservation. When we got there at 11 on Sunday, the restaurant was only one-third full, if that. There was a jazz band playing. I've been to CGs for lunch a bunch of times, and it's usually decent. Brunch costs $25. It includes coffee, tea, juice, mimosas, and/or bloody Mary's. The first course is fruit and "sweetbreads." For a moment, the horrible thought crossed our minds that sweetbreads could mean things like unsavory animal parts. Sweetbreads, according to Wikipedia (so it must be true) are defined as thymus glands of lamb, beef, or pork. I won't lie to you; I've never had real sweetbreads. They might be really tasty.... At any rate, we were relieved to discover that the sweetbread was a piece of coffe cake, which was actually quite tasty. The fruit was a mix of berries and melon. It was ok. I'm not really a fan of honeydew or canteloupe, especially as flavorless as the stuff that we were served. The second course was a choice of a bunch of different things. Half of us ordered steak and eggs and the other half of us ordered this crab/egg benedict dish. They were fine, but nothing great. The steak was ok, but honestly, something I could have made at home. The crab was like a smooshed up crab cake that wasn't very fresh. Again, the food was decent, but nothing to get excited about. However, the potatoes that came with the main courses were awesome! They were thick, yet crunchy. Wow, that sounds cheesey. The best part of the meal, though? The coffee! It was strong and well-brewed. I heartily approve! Not sure I'd go back again for brunch. In total, with gratuity and tax, it cost us about $70 for brunch (for two of us). Yeah, the food was decent, but is it really worth it to pay $70 for only decent brunch?