Fan-cee!

Friday morning Logan and I had a breakfast date. Instead of our usual Bob Evans or IHOP, Logan chose Le Peep. Le Peep is a chain restaurant, but rather than flaunting their chain connection, they pretend to be a mom and pop. The menu is huge and diverse and I believe they probably do actually mix pancake batter and crack their own eggs and possibly even cut up their own potatoes. In other words, the food actually tastes good and fresh rather than the processed, fake taste of Bob Evans where I imagine most everything is poured from a package.

Much of the restaurant decor is similar to Bob Evans- hugging stuffed snowmen and generic paintings. However, unlike Bob Evans, the tables are covered in vinyl tablecloths, there are water carafes and actual glass glasses on each table. The windows have curtains instead of blinds and classical music plays instead of lite rock. The Le Peep wait staff wear polos, so Bob Evans, with their button-up shirts, actually has classier uniforms.

Anyway, my point in this never ending description was Logan's reaction to Le Peep. He was SO impressed at how fancy Le Peep was. He spent our entire meal looking around in awe and just taking in all the fanciness. The tablecloth pretty much blew his mind. (I was laughing because it was similar to the tablecloths a former boss used to hang so the tigers could look at them for visual enrichment.) The GLASS water pitcher and glasses were too much to take in. The ceiling fans (plain brown, nothing special) were so fancy! The music! He just kept loudly exclaiming over and over and over how FANCY the place was. It was hilarious! He was very disappointed that this fancy restaurant still had gum under the tables...

I started really thinking about it and other than theme birthday parties (with plastic table coverings) and Grandma Kaiser's family dinners, the kid has probably never been anywhere else that uses tablecloths! I don't even own one. Almost all restaurants these days use plastic cups. I guess the "fanciest" we get is an occasional trip to a steakhouse and even they use plastic cups, at least for the kids. And the steakhouses certainly aren't blaring classical music!

Wow. A very casual before-school breakfast is my 8-year-old's fanciest dining experience to date! I'd consider taking him somewhere that's actually fancy, but then I'd have to figure out how to rein in his loud enthusiasm for pointing out all the fanciness. I'm thinking the other patrons and staff might not find it as amusing as those at Le Peep. Yep. We're just not fancy folk.