Franchises

Owners of franchises have to rely on their head office, who gets a percentage of every burger sold, to maintain company standards. I would say McDonald's is the best at this. You will LOSE your store if you don't keep up with company standards. Now, their standards are not high enough for me but they are consistent. With the exception of my overstuffed cup of ICEd tea recently Mickey D's does a heck of a job at being CONSISTENT. You buy a burger in SacTown or a burger in New York city and it will taste just about exactly the same, will look just about exactly the same, and will cost about the same. This contributes greatly to every Mickey D's owner. People that are satisfied with the Mickey D's quality can always rest assured their burger will have 2 pickles, 1 swirl of mustard and 2 swirls of ketchup. The meat will probably be from the same farm and the bun will be made to the exact specifications that Ronald yells from the rooftop at the home office in Illinois. With this in mind people buy burgers at Mickey D's when visiting a strange city as they know what to expect. The local diner MAY be better and it may be horrendously bad and serving horse meat.

Why am I talking about franchises today? Any of my readers know my favorite breakfast spot is the Original Pancake House... aka: the Original Pimp House. Though it is high quality it is also a nationwide franchise. Kitty Kat and I have been to the first store in Portland a number of times and also been to stores in San Jose, Los Altos, Denver, Honolulu, Scottsdale, Poway, and probably a couple more I am forgetting. They are always high quality and very similar. The decor is similar, the prices similar and the long wait for a table are similar. That is, until this past Thursday....

We were in San Diego for a couple days to celebrate Thanksgiving with some of our So Cal relatives. We hit the OPH in Escondido which is on the north side of San Diego. It was equa distance to there or the one in Poway so we opted to try a new one. We called, and following general OPH practice, they did not accept reservations even for our party of 10. However, they said there was no wait. Hmmmmmm, yes it was Thanksgiving but it was like 9:00 AM and you are telling me nobody else is going out for pancakes on Thanksgiving!? I was surprised.

We found the OPH without much trouble, parked and rushed inside to beat some others inside to get our name on the waiting list. I was SHOCKED to see the place 85% EMPTY. Finding a table for 10 could be our choice of several locations around the circular restaurant. We were seated at a marginal table near the kitchen door, overlooked the poor seating selection of the host, and began perusing the menu. The menu looked similar to our OPH in Roseville. Apple Pancake, Dutch Baby, pumpkin pancakes as the special, etc.... Prices were actually a few pennies CHEAPER than up here in SacTown which seemed odd.

We ordered an apple pancake as an appetizer. Let me start by saying I have had the apple pancake at 6 or more OPH locations and this one was NOT consistent with the others at all. It was like they used a different recipe. The thing was breaking apart, sliding around the plate, and did not have that usual eggie foundation that an apple pancake should have. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would put it at about a 4. Very disappointing!

The fresh fruit options for Kitty Kat's waffle were... ahhhhhhh... NONE. The waitress said she could get some melon if she liked. I was picturing a nice big OPH waffle with a big hunk of cantaloupe on top so was not surprised when Kitty Kat turned that down. She went for the plain waffle.

One thing that the Roseville store does different than most OPH's is bigger glasses for iced tea and they do have a soda fountain so Kitty Kat can get her Diet Coke on. The Escondido store had the traditional small iced tea glass (about three gulps for me) and no soda fountain. No biggie for me as I just had the wait staff filling me up throughout our time there. Bigger deal for Kitty Kat as she couldn't get her morning groove going without her fountain Diet Coke. Bummer.

Then the waffle arrived and... well, that's when we realized OPH needs to work on their franchise consistency. The thing was a little, tiny, flat, and BORING waffle on a plate. I would have eaten five of them as I had gone on a great 75 minute run that morning and was famished. I'll tell you about that another day; it was a glorious run along the coast and up into the Torrey Pines state park. Luckily I ordered an omelet which was normal sized though too many veggies inside. I thus was able to re-fuel my body.

Anyway, the meal was fine but certainly not what we have come to expect. It was particularly disappointing as we had guests with us who had not dined at OPH before. I think they were wondering why we would drive 15 minutes for breakfast when there was a nice looking buffet at our Marriott. The next morning we could have gone to the other OPH, up in Poway, but instead went to IHOP near our hotel. Now, IHOP was worse than the OPH in Escondido but at least we expected that. IHOP has standards that are met nationwide. It costs about 40% less than the OPH and is about one-third as good. However, it was what we expected.

In conclusion, if down in Diego go to the OPH in Poway and not the one in Escondido!

Peace out.