Eating Out on $50 is a monthly restaurant feature. Two people determined to spend only $50 on dinner, drinks, tax and tip will discover just how much can be purchased for so little.
In the Great War of the Flapjacks, Stacks Pancake House & Café, with two locations, has taken on the ubiquitous International House of Pancakes, a gutsy move since the second Stacks restaurant, in Paramus, is just a few minutes south of the IHOP in Ramsey, both on Route 17.
To continue the David-Goliath allusion for a moment, IHOP has been around since 1958, and 99 percent of its locations are owned by franchisees. SPHC opened its only other location, in Hoboken, three years ago, and hopes to sell franchises. But for now, both SPHCs remain in the hands of the founders, a father-son team with combined experience in investment banking and bagel making.
Andrew Cohen, the son, sees a Stacks pancake empire dotting road maps some day. "We welcome interest in it," says Cohen, who opened his Paramus location six months ago in a building that had housed a Pizza Hut for 38 years and the Paramus Diner before that.
What is it about breakfast all day that captures the eyes and appetites of hungry people? Cohen thinks it's breakfast's role as a provider of comfort food. "Especially this time of year," he said.
The economy might have something to do with it as well. Because of Stacks' concentration on pancakes, waffles and French toast, keeping the cost of dinner for two under $50 is easy. Also listed on the bill of fare are several sandwiches, salads and omelets.
So, which sweetness interests you? Among the menu items are pancakes with nuts, with fruit, with powdered sugar, with coconut, with chocolate chips, banana and peanut butter. You get the point.
In fact, Stacks offers two dozen pancake variations, and the menu declares that all are "light and fluffy." More about "light and fluffy" in a minute. Many of the toppings are available on waffles and French toast as well.
Pancake wrap for dinner
I passed on such fare as "slice of heaven pancakes" (bananas, strawberries and melted chocolate chips) and looked for something more dinner-like. A sweet breakfast at 7 at night? Not for me. From a group of eight pancake wraps, all named for streets in Hoboken, I picked the Willow ($8.25) and in deference to Stacks, I asked for it to be served in a pancake and not a tortilla, which was available.
The Willow wrap contained scrambled eggs and some truly robust jalapeño pepper. There was also barely enough Taylor ham to justify its inclusion in the menu description, as well as just a bit of pepper jack cheese. In fact, after not tasting cheese in a couple of mouthfuls, I went looking for it and found a small dab buried deep inside.
Pancakes should be made so the insides are, as the menu promised, "light and fluffy." Any moistness should come from syrup. But my one large pancake had a gummy consistency even before I applied a little syrup.
My friend ordered the broccoli and cheddar omelet ($7.75), which came with three silver dollar pancakes that struck me as heavy and doughy. The broccoli was plentiful, cooked nicely and retained much of its crunch, but here, too, there wasn't much cheese.
For dessert we split a brownie sundae ($4.95). This was two large scoops of ice cream and four large dollops of whipped cream with a brownie that the waiter assured us was made on premises.
Some nice touches at Stacks: The waiter brought a basket of warm, tasty cornbread to snack on until dinner was ready, and he asked if my friend (a tea drinker) and I (a coffee drinker) preferred milk or cream. Also, Cohen said, his use of sugar (read: non-maple) syrup has ended and real maple is now standard at Stacks. The service was friendly and attentive, and the place has an interesting contemporary industrial look.
The bill, with tax and tip, came to $27.42.
