Brooklynites came from near and far to gorge on piping hot buttermilk pancakes, sausage, hash browns, eggs and every other conceivable type of breakfast fare on Tuesday as the International House of Pancakes opened its first Downtown location, beneath the municipal parking garage at Livingston and Bond streets.
“Of course, I ordered pancakes,” said Lindsay Vazquez, who came all the way from Williamsburg for the famous flapjacks.
“I usually get the Rooty Tooty Fresh ’N Fruity with blueberries, but they’ve got something new here called the ‘Steakhouse Combo’ that comes with two pancakes, two pieces of sausage, two eggs and hash browns and I had to try it.”
Built into a parking garage, this IHOP bears little resemblance to the roadside comfort food stations throughout the rest of America.
As such, many diners didn’t know what to expect in hardscrabble Brooklyn.
“The last time I ate at an IHOP was on some lonesome highway in middle America,” said Jordan Langley of Midwood. “It’s kind of weird to find one in the city.”
Langley’s only complaint about his breakfast was the price.
“Seven dollars for eggs and toast is a lot of money, but I don’t hold it against them because the rent here has got to be a lot higher than it is along some highway in the Midwest.”
There are two other IHOPs in the borough — one in Flatbush and one in Canarsie. But Dave Cox and Robert Cummins, the Brooklyn-bred duo that own the Downtown franchise, knew they had to bring one to the heart of Brooklyn.
“We’re loyal IHOP customers from way back,” said Cummins, who achieved fame in an entirely different realm, as the rap impressario who “discovered” Mary J. Blige and others.
“For years we’ve been asking each other, ‘Why isn’t there an IHOP Downtown and why aren’t there more IHOPs in Brooklyn?’” added Cox.
The Downtown location is just the beginning of Cox and Cummins’s IHOP empire.
After a rigorous screening at IHOP’s “Pancake College,” the pair was given the right to develop three IHOPs in Brooklyn. And if the first day’s business at the Downtown store is any indication, those other two locations will also be well received.
The Downtown store is their first IHOP, but not their first restaurant. Cox and Cummins, who grew up in Flatbush and East Flatbush respectively, opened Famous Seafood in their old stomping grounds in 2006.
Oh, and the Rooty Tooty Fresh ’N Fruity? This ethereal combination of buttermilk pancakes smothered with fruit and whipped cream has been IHOP’s signature dish since 1984.
It’s unlikely that dieting Borough President Markowitz will dive in, but he is expected at the restaurant’s ribbon-cutting ceremony next month, Cummins said.
