Have you heard about the International House of Pancakes restaurant that doesn’t serve real maple syrup? Well, that would be all of them. Except one.
According to The New York Times, when the first IHOP in Vermont opened last month — in Burlington, near Canada — the franchise owners asked for and got permission to offer the real deal instead of the artificial stuff that gets glugged onto flapjacks in about 1,400 other IHOPs in North America. As the general manager, whose family owns the Burlington outlet, Sam Handy, Jr., told the Times, “You can’t open up a Vermont pancake shop without Vermont maple syrup.”
He’s right, but here’s the catch: the genuine article is 99 cents extra. Even so, the shop sells about 180 of them each week through word of mouth; real maple syrup’s not on the menu. If 180 doesn’t sound like a lot, keep in mind Vermont has more cows than people. A lot more.
And how disturbing is this sentence? Mr. Handy said he had given many IHOP trainers, who came from Arizona, California and Colorado to help open the restaurant, their first taste of real maple syrup. They work for a pancake chain but have never in their lives eaten anything but the fake junk that’s not allowed to be called maple syrup because it’s corn syrup.
Speaking of those Vermont cows, Handy says he’d like to explore buying dairy products and eggs from local farmers too. It’s important to him to buy locally. Bravo, Mr. Handy! Next time I’m up that way I will seek out the only IHOP franchise in Vermont, the only one in North America serving real maple syrup.
IHOP should be ashamed of itself.
If you’re hungry for pancakes now, try my mom’s recipe for Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes. It’ll be the weekend before you know it.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Kudos to Handy! There’s nothing like the real thing, hopefully others will follow suit!
Savory Tv’s last blog post..Pebble Beach Food and Wine 2009
I agree, and I think the real deal should be an option at all IHOPs at the very least. I haven’t been in one for decades but I’d sure assume a pancake house is serving maple syrup.
I miss maple syrup… I have to eat the sugar free and it is so not worth it.
I understand, Robin When I stocked the store I put several maple syrups in the Nibbles, Noshes and Sips section and one is sugar free, but I’ve never tasted it. It’s a good seller for Amazon though.
Have you ever tried crushed fruit on your pancakes with sucralose you’ve whizzed up to make powdered “sugar”?
Maple syrup is my favourite flavour in the world, perhaps because it is soo expensive the other side of the ocean that I can only eat it rarely. It always tastes like (and I know how silly this sounds) smokey forests in Autumn!
Mysterycreature’s last blog post..Oh the colours…
It doesn’t sound silly, especially if you’ve had Amber Dark instead of Medium. I can relate to the price difference; clotted cream is wildly expensive here and I love the stuff. It’s a once-a-year treat, if that, which probably is a good thing for my hips and arteries.