Washing Hands Without Soap

             A couple of Thursdays ago I was on the west side of town and my eyes became drawn to the grand opening of a new IHOP location. Although IHOP is nothing more than a glorified diner, in Manhattan an IHOP seems like a duck out of water. The only other two locations I know of in the city are up in Harlem and a few blocks away from Union Square on the east side. Other chained franchises such as McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts fit the city like a glove, but something about an IHOP stands out. I didn't have time to go in on that particular day, but knowing I had to be back in the city on that upcoming Saturday to run some errands, I planned make that the day I would test out this new location.

             IHOP, short for The International House of Pancakes, has been around since 1958, starting in California, and today has over fifteen-hundred locations across the nation. In 2007 they consumed the Applebee's franchise and are owned by the combined forces which is officially named DineEquity. They're best known for their pancakes, but over the years they've expanded their menu to comply with the traditional foods eaten at lunch and dinner by Americans. I started my day in midtown with grey and threatening skies overhead. Cutting through the city using 53rd St. I stumbled upon a small alley which had a sign labeling it 6 1/2 Ave. I couldn't tell if it was a real street name or some type of joke. The sign looked pretty real to me. Downtown trains on the west side were all messed up due to weekend construction, so my 1 train actually skipped the Houston St. stop I needed and went all the way down to Chambers St. where I needed to switch over to the uptown side to get back. Once I finally reached my stop and was at the corner of Varick and Downing, the new IHOP was only steps away. When you enter you don't get into the restaurant part right away. There's a small waiting room with a hostess desk you must approach first and then you're brought into the actual restaurant section. It's actually a great idea because who wants to be eating their food at their table and watching people stare back at them on the line, using their eyes to say, "Hurry up with your food - I want to sit down and eat". This method allows patrons to eat in peace without angry eyes piercing through their skin like laser beams.

             The restaurant has a weird zigzag shape compared to the usual rectangular shapes of most dine-in eateries. For a place in the city which could get very crowded, it didn't seem like there would be enough tables to accommodate big crowds during peak hours. The time I was going was a lazy Saturday afternoon, so I was seated immediately and there were plenty of open tables left. Basically the entire wait staff had tattoos rolling down their arms; either saying something about the IHOP hiring guidelines or perhaps just a sign of the times. I can't put my finger on it, but having a guy with tattoos in a white shirt and blue apron bringing you fluffy pancakes also seems like a duck out of water. The waiters and waitresses hung out by the kitchen door and were discussing anything except pancakes. I had to make eye contact with my waiter so he could come back over and take my order. I felt bad about interrupting his conversation. I went with the never-ending pot of coffee (which actually turned out to be two cups for me) and kept it simple with the pancakes - just three regular with a side of bacon. The menu features all sorts of pancakes, from traditional blueberry or strawberry to cheesecake-filled which racks up to nearly two thousand calories. I was imagining those cheesecake pancakes in my mouth, but the intelligent part of my brain directed me away from the calorie-nuke. Even though I ordered my pancakes with a side of bacon, I received a side of breakfast sausages instead. I guess IHOP knows whats best for me.

             While I was eating two cops came in and sat down at the table next to me. I never thought I would see pancakes and live ammunition within the same field of view, but it happened. Before leaving I wanted to check out the bathroom which is located on the downstairs level. When I first entered the restaurant I felt there wasn't enough tables for a city-located establishment, but then the downstairs made things clear for me. There was the mother-load of tables located downstairs, probably even more than the upstairs. Since it wasn't busy, the downstairs tables weren't being used and basically all the lights were off, but if they did receive bigger crowds, then they would be able to accommodate them. The bathroom itself was quite clean, but there was one small detail missing when I went to wash my hands - there was no soap!! Both liquid soap dispensaries were bone-dry. I wouldn't have been surprised if there never had been any soap during the grand opening period. If there was some soap previously, there would've been at least some bubbling foam or something seeping out, but this was bone-dry as in no soap ever. I could've reported this to the policemen upstairs, but figuring it was the grand opening and everyone was getting used to the nuisances of the establishment, I let it go, hoping one day they'll get around to putting soap in the soap dispensary. On my way out as I passed the hostess desk there were two more cops standing there and ordering from the take-out menu. This IHOP must be the new "Go-To" for the nearby precinct.

             With a belly full of pancakes, and breakfast sausages I didn't order, I figured I walk it off towards the water by the west side piers. I strolled along the cobblestone blocks of old New York until I made my way to West St., which appears the be the only strip of real estate in Manhattan that's not experiencing a boom. After passing a former gentlemen's club with no ATMs inside and a deserted diner that's too frightening to peek inside, I crossed the street and got a great view of the Freedom Tower which seems nearly finished. I spent a couple of minutes by the water, but once those grey skies finally let down some raindrops, I knew it was time to head back home. I didn't want to have to deal with the construction fiasco of the 1 train again, so my plan was to catch the E train in front of the IFC Theater and take that across town to transfer to the 6. While en route via Bleecker Street the raindrops let up and tourist crowds built up along the way.

             Walking by small eateries and ice cream shops, I was hit with this sudden urge for bubble tea. It's a flavored Chinese drink with soft jelly/gummy-bear like beads at the bottom. The straws for bubble tea are always wide so you can suck up and eat the beads. I was hoping I would find one of these on Bleecker Street, but I was having no luck. They're all over the place in Chinatown, but I really didn't feel like going out of my way to get it. It would've been a great cherry on top for the IHOP experience, but as I drew near the West 4th train station, it was looking like I was going home without my bubble tea. Then as I was about to head down the stairs for the subway, my head turned left and I caught a series of Chinese lettering. I had no idea what they meant, but in English the store has the word bakery on it. In Chinatown, all the Chinese bakeries serve bubble tea. This Fay Da Bakery knew I was in need of bubble tea and it was almost as if it magically appeared as I was about to leave the city as a bubble tea loser. Had I taken the 1 train instead of walking to the E train, this would've been the case. In the end, the construction fiasco worked out well for me. There was no mention of bubble tea in the front window, but I knew they had to be serving it. I went inside and said the words "Bubble Tea" to the lady behind the counter about three or four times before she picked up on what I wanted. You can get bubble tea in all sorts of flavors, unfortunately the lady didn't hear me when I asked for mango, so she gave me generic brown tea, which was still okay.

               If you want something sometimes, it will appear.........

Eating the First Hamburger Ever Made

            That would be somewhat gross, but I took the next closest step in having a freshly made hamburger at Louis Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut, credited in the food world as being the birth place of what is today known as the hamburger, back in 1895. I found out about the place around two years ago after watching a show on the History Channel that traced back the early days of hamburgers and hot dogs, and always wanted to make the trip up to New haven to have one myself.

            The day actually started out with quite a bang that awoke me from my sleep around 7am. At first I couldn't tell what was wrong, then I heard someone out on the street yelling that he was beeping his horn and another guy claiming he didn't hear it. This could only mean one thing, there must have been a traffic accident. As mentioned in my November 18th blog of 2011 titled, "Fighting Grey Hair, Dumb Australian Family, and a Motorcycle Accident", there are frequent accidents and near-crashes with vehicles near by corner all the time. It was also raining in the morning, so it was difficult to see what was going on outside my window, but I did see both drivers inspecting their cars for damage. From my vantage point it didn't seem like there was much damage at all, so I just went back to sleep. I didn't hear any further yelling or police sirens, so with little visible damage, I think both drivers just agreed to part ways without filing any reports. When I'm jolted out of my sleep like that it usually messes me up, and as a result I didn't wake up again until a little after 11am. I still felt dead tired, but figured it was almost mid-day and I couldn't keep sleeping. As I fought myself to get out of bed, something inside me made me think about the burger place in Connecticut that I always wanted to visit, and that gave me the final push to leave my warm covers.

            The weather wasn't too great as it was still raining, and according to Google Maps the drive to New Haven was about an hour and a half. I contemplated putting it off until next week, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted that hamburger today. Despite the weather conditions, the drive was very easy as I made my way north on the I-95 and the roads were quite empty. Getting off the highway, the place was only a few blocks away and I ended up parking my car in a lot since parking spaces were scarce that time of the day in downtown New Haven. For a moment I thought I would have to walk a few blocks to get to Louis Lunch, but as soon as I left the lot I parked my car at, the place was right next store. When I went inside everything looked the same as I saw it on TV a few years earlier. It was rather crowded with other people, but there were still some open seats and tables. When the inside was originally built in the remaining years of the 1800's, it wasn't meant to hold the number of tourists and hamburger enthusiasts that frequent the place. There's a counter with a few stools to sit on, one big table, a smaller table, and then these wooden chairs with their backs to the wall and a small table on the armrest for people to eat off of. Behind the counter holds the original grills that were used when the place very first opened and are still used to this day. There's the grill that cooks the hamburgers and another machine that toasts the bread.

            Their menu is quite simple, either hamburger or cheeseburger, and its garnished with onions and a tomato. The original owner back in the day felt those are the only items worth putting on a burger. For sides there are just two choices, potato salad, served in a cup with a spoon, or a bag of potato chips. There's Snapple and other type of bottles of soft drinks to go with the burger as well. The order is taken from the person behind the counter, they ask for your name, and you pay before getting the food. It was a difficult decision whether to have cheese on the burger or not, but in order to get the pure taste from those hundred year old plus grills, I figured cheese would be a distraction and opted for a standard hamburger. I passed on any sides and had a Snapple iced tea to go along with it. The total for everything only came out to $7.25, which means the landmark hamburger only costs about five dollars, which is very reasonable. All burgers are cooked to medium-rare, there's no option to pick and choose how cooked a person wants it to be. I sat down at one of the wooden chairs that made me feel like King Arthur in King Arthur's Court and noticed all the names and marks scratched into the wood over the decades. This too was highlighted on the television show, that people who visit Louis Lunch are encouraged to scratch their mark into the wooden areas inside the place, without being too obvious about it. While I waited for my burger to be ready, I took my house keys out and made sure to make my mark into Louis Lunch eternity on my table.

             I'm guessing its due to the old fashion process in which they cooks the hamburgers, but the wait for mine was nearly twenty-minutes. In most diners or resturants, burgers are cooked and served within ten minutes. As I waited and two old ladies where standing near me on line for the bathroom, I found it ironic the 70's hit "Brother Louie" by Stories started to play from the radio. The radio was playing music from a local rock station, so it wasn't planned, just a funny coincidence. Finally my hamburger was ready and I couldn't wait to have a bite of history. I immediately removed the tomato, but left the onion. Instead of a hamburger bun, the burgers are served on toasted slices of white bread. If it took me twenty-minutes to wait for the burger, it only took me about three-minutes to eat it. Overall I can't say its the best tasting burger I ever had, but the manner in which its cooked gives it a softer texture than the typical grilled burger at a diner or resturant. If anything, its the nostaglia and history of the place more than the burger itself. It was certainly worth the drive and I would be open to having it again in the future. The last thing that was on my mind was the bathroom, was it modern or old fashion as well. Once I got inside the bathroom I saw everything was quite modern, except for the door. This too had a bunch of scratch marks and writing on it, so I took out my keys once again and initialized my girlfriend and mine's names with a heart in the middle. It was either going to be that or the word "fart" by itself.

            This was my first time in New Haven, so instead of immediately heading for home, I decided to walk around some and get to know the town. I first passed a old-looking smoke shop and cigar lounge that made me wish I knew how to smoke a pipe. Then next I came upon a small public park, and inside the park were about a dozen or so tents, it reminded me of Haiti. I walked closer to see what it was and it turns out it was the last standing participants of the Occupy New Haven movement that must have started a couple of months ago, spurred on by the original Occupy Wall Street movement of the fall. As I moved on I realized most of the people walking on the sidewalks were in their early-twenties or late teens, plus there were very old buildings and churches all over, then it struck me that I must be in  the midst of a college community. When I took a closer look at one of the signs in front of a church I saw I was on the grounds of the prestigious Yale University. There was one section were a gate was open for students or people to get across campus from the street entrance, so seeing this would be the only way I could get accepted into Yale University, I went in to have a look. I'm sure the old architecture and rainy weather had something to do with it, but frankly the place was depressing and the students walking around looked miserable robots. Instead of taking in more of the building around Yale University, I just wanted to get out of there.

           As I was heading for the exit, there was a tour for possible incoming students looking to apply to Yale, so as a real Yale student gave them the tour, I saw some of the people had their attention towards me, so I strutted by as if I too as a Yale student. When I was off the grounds it gave me thoughts that I had zero jealously for ivy league students and I was so happy I was finished with college year ago. The only attraction the town had for me was the numerous amount of bars and resturants. The bars near a college is understandable and expected, but there were wonderful options to eat such as Turkish, Ethiopian, Mediterranean, Japanese, and all sorts of fancy fusion combos. In addition, there were alot of nice coffee houses and lounges which cater to the Yale students to have a place to study, or copy a term paper off of someone else. I went inside one of the coffee spots to get myself a rich cup of hot chocolate. It came out just right were it wasn't too hot and I was able to start sipping on it right away. With the old buildings and the grey skies, the town as a whole had a very European look to it. I passed by my friends again at Occupy New Haven as well as Louis Lunch and went to the lot to retrieve my car.

             The best thing about the day was the two hours of parking only cost two dollars...