Times Square IHOP

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:22am

Well Times Square has officially become like everywhere else. IHOP is planning on putting a restaurant in Times Square.
Link

[madbrian]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:23am

I guess this is to fill the void left when HoJo's closed?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:29am

Am I supposed to be upset that I'll have all you can eat candy cane pancakes in my neighborhood now? Because I gotta tell you, this makes me so so happy.

[WestVillage]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:32am

And there will probably be fat ass tourists willing to wait 2 hours to get in so they can have their "all you can eat pancake specials." Times Square is such a joke. Bring back the hookers and drug dealers so Times Square can have some grit to it. Is it so NOT New York anymore.

[Calvin]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:38am

Where I grew up, the drug deals happened at IHOP. So maybe this is the first step!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:40am

I'm ok with it not being the gritty Times Square. It was no fun having to walk past drunks vomiting in the streets or go down into the subway and be menaced by homeless drug addicts.

However, New York has lost its originality. New York has been Starbucksized. It used to be that in New York you could find things you didn't see back home. Where's Fran Liebowitz when you need her? Where's the Village Voice? Canal Jeans and the Unique Clothing Warehouse? Mama Leone's and Luchows? Replaced by some generic, formulaic, mess.

Updated On: 12/10/10 at 10:40 AM

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:40am

If it keeps the tourists out of my favorite breakfast dives on 9th, I'm all for it!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:40am

The drug deals always happened at the Waffle House where I grew up.
Updated On: 12/10/10 at 10:40 AM

[WestVillage]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:45am

Where's the Gaiety and the Adonis Movie Theatre? Yeah, I can live without the vomiting drunks, but I do miss the colorful characters. The only thing colorful about the people in TS now is that for some reason, they wear the most god-awful ridiculous outfits that they wouldn't be caught dead in back home.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:46am

Make sure you stop in for your $25 Rootie Tootie Fresh and Fruity. I bet the servers don't look IHOP servers usually look, either.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:48am

I'd prefer almost anything to IHOP. Why couldn't they have a Waffle House or a Denny's or a Cracker Barrel or a Minnie Pearl's Fried Chicken?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 10:50am

Goth, I've thought about just opening up a Cracker Barrel here, myself.

[Weez]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 11:26am

I've always wanted to go to an IHOP. I was very sad there wasn't one in NYC the last couple of times I've been there. Overseas tourists will be pleased, even if you fellas aren't. :P

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 11:34am

My wife will be thrilled. It's her favorite US restaurant. lol

[Calvin]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 11:37am

Wait, they don't have locations overseas? Why aren't they just NHOP, then? This is the biggest rip-off since the World Series.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 11:41am

"I've always wanted to go to an IHOP. I was very sad there wasn't one in NYC the last couple of times I've been there. Overseas tourists will be pleased, even if you fellas aren't. :P"

Trust me, you don't want to go. Their pancakes are like eating pieces of cardboard.

NYC had a great pancake house which closed - Royal Canadian Pancake House.

I demand they put a Chik-Fil-A in Times Square!! Now!!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 11:44am

"Goth, I've thought about just opening up a Cracker Barrel here, myself."

Jordan, I have written to Cracker Barrel and suggested several locations in the New York, New Jersey, and CT area. The wrote back and said "We currently are not planning locations for those cities." Then I look on their website and see "We're proud to announce our 24th location in Macon Georiga" People in the South don't need Cracker Barrel because they have 100 other restaurants that serve southern cooking. NYC has about 3 soul food restaurants and that's the extent of southern cooking.

[Weez]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 11:49am

Oh Goth sweetie, I don't dream of eating at ANY American establishments because of the taste! It's just the opportunity to sample the cuisine I feel I should know because of how deeply it has saturated the international consciousness. You pad your books and films and TV shows with Applebee's and Wendy's and IHOP and Olive Garden. We just wanna try it, dagnabbit!

And it can't be as bad as Twinkies, right? I don't know how anyone could ever consume an entire one of those, I really don't. D:

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 11:56am

Don't go to Applebees! You can find edible items at the other places, but Applebees is like eating cardboard. lol

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 11:56am

Last time I checked, Times Square is most definitely NOT like everywhere else and still has numerous unique restaurants and shops. Not to mention Restaurant Row, 8th Avenue, Midtown East and Hell's Kitchen. IHOP has changed nothing. It just replaced an old crappy chain with a new one. And the last time I was in NYC, nearly every diner served pancakes. My partner and I eat most of our meals in local NYC diners. They all had pancakes on the menu. Including Cafe Edison. In Times Square.

Pimps, whore, violence, drugs and drunk were never unique to Times Square. They are in every major city in the US (and pretty much the world). Why do they have to be specifically in Time Square?

Updated On: 12/10/10 at 11:56 AM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 12:00pm

Weez, you're coming from a land where beans on toast is someone's idea of a meal and you question consuming Twinkies?

I do understand what you're saying. IHOP was one of the restaurants I went to as a kid. I would always order the same happy face pancake breakfast. On the pancake they would put a happy face of chocolate chip eyes, half cherry nose, pineapple smile and put whip cream around it as either hair or a beard.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 12:02pm

Fran Leibowitz and the Village Voice are gone? Why didn't anyone tell me?

[Jon]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 12:06pm

I hope the Times Square IHOP will at least be open 24 hours a day. That's how they all were back in the "old days" (the 1970's-80's!). Now the IHOP near me (Chicago suburbs) closes at 11 PM! WTF???

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 12:12pm

MisterMatt, it's not pancakes I object to, it's IHOP. The experience is not a uniquely New York City experience. What bothers me is that the uniqueness of the city has been lost.

When I was little, we came to visit NYC. We went into a Chock Full of Nuts because my mother wanted the nut bread. We sat at the counter, the waitress (think Thelma Ritter type) comes up and she's tapping her pencil on her pad and says "Whater youz have kid?" Three hours later we walked by that Chock Full of Nuts again and there were people standing in line waiting to sit in the spot I had been sitting in. Obviously that's not an experience unique to New York City alone, but you don't see that everywhere. That scenario has stuck with me for more than 35 years.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 12:15pm

Every time I visit London, I have to eat at a Pizza Express. YUM!

Jon - I believe the IHOP in Boystown is still open 24 hours. It really has to do with a supply/demand thing. If there aren't enough late-night customers to warrant a 24-hour staff, then it simply isn't done. It's quite expensive to do so in the suburbs. The overhead is high and it can be very tricky to find reliable staff to work night shifts.