The Original Pancake House

Ok. So I just found out this is a chain. But I had never heard of it, and was still under the impression that it was one of a kind when we went yesterday. And it was really good.

It's called The Original Pancake House, and it's in a strip mall down on Chagrin east of 271. (The Cleveland area has really changed my view of strip malls. I've learned that just because something is in a strip mall, it doesn't mean that it's bad or cheesey. There are some really great restaurants around here in strip malls.) It's conveniently across the street from Trader Joe's and down the street from Wild Oats, so you can use it as a reward for doing your grocery shopping.

It's really nice inside. Sort of fresh and colorful and soothing at the same time. And they are serious about pancakes there. I mean. There are like 18 flavors of pancakes on the menu, and then all the egg dishes come with a side of pancakes. Which altered our ordering strategy (normally: one savory and one sweet and we share) somewhat. We ended up getting eggs benedict with smoked salmon (YUM!!!) with a side of buttermilk pancakes and then a feta, sun-dried tomato, and spinach omelette with a side of buckwheat pancakes. The omelette was really good, and huge. Dr. Jay LOVED the buckwheat pancakes and kept claiming that they tasted almost chocolatey. (I didn't taste any chocolateness. I think this says more about how often Dr. Jay eats chocolate than it does about the pancakes...)

On the way out, we saw some beautiful, I guess it was orange, juice. It was so brilliantly orange, I guess it must have been fresh squeezed. We'll have to look into that next time.