Pancakes and Porn aka Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, Canada

If you subscribe to my newsletter (gosh, why wouldn’t you??) you know that the last few weeks of my life have been pretty hectic.

Chef Rouge left his job to pursue his passion, which means in less than 2 weeks we opened a pop-up restaurant called Loka Snacks, with the long term dream of opening a 20 seat restaurant called Loka.

It’s been nutso. I put all my work aside to help him and so far it’s been an amazing ride.

But even with all the support we really needed a break. For him that meant midweek roller coasters at Canada’s Wonderland. I jumped on board forgetting I’m scared of heights.

So we rented a car and were so excited to see that no one was in the parking lot. We’d have the amusement park to ourselves.

Wait…

No one was there at all! Because it’s September and Wonderland is only open on weekends.

I’m not the kind of person who likes the dwell on disappointment so I immediately suggested Niagara Falls.

Chef Rouge has never been there and didn’t know the best things to do in Niagara Falls or if there were any but I knew you could see Niagara Falls free, and that would make a cheap getaway.

I had a very fuzzy memory of it from a few decades back. Much thanks to Groupon we found a very cheap hotel and we’re set for an overnight trip.

We headed first for the Falls, although Chef Rouge seemed unimpressed.

I think he may have had Iguazu Falls in his head, Niagara is nice but much smaller. On the bright side there was a double rainbow.

I was prepared for cheesiness, I remembered that part of the Falls but I was most surprised by the number of IHOPS- like ten of them with a span of two blocks.

I’d say the same is true for sex shops.

If someone asked me what Niagara Falls is all about I’d say IHOPs and sex shops.

I guess it could be worse.

And instead of judging we decided to embrace it.

After seeing the Falls we weren’t entirely sure what to do.

Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville’s patio had a long line so we ended up at Tequila and Tacos, which was the highlight for me our bartender was from Honduras and we talked about how dangerous it is now and how Colombia is one of the best countries in the world – next to Canada of course.

Sufficiently full of both tequila and tacos Ripley’s Believe it or Not seemed like a good idea, maybe too much fun as we ended up closing the place.

So we left to ride the ferris wheel where I realized that maybe Wonderland wasn’t a great idea because the height of the safe ferris wheel was giving me anxiety.

After late night pizza and beer we called it a night. The next day we weren’t done with Niagara Falls as we wanted one last taste of cheesiness – the Flying Saucer Restaurant.

A 40-year old diner shaped like a flying saucer and an E.T. breakfast special with 2 buttermilk pancakes, 3 large eggs, 2 sausages, 2 strips of bacon, 2 pieces of ham, home fries and Texas Toast.

After a valiant attempt to eat all of it Chef Rouge agreed it was time to leave.

We had a great overnight trip. We laughed a lot and outside the city we were able to relax and not talk work.

I’m so grateful to Niagara Falls for that but I think it’s safe to say we won’t be back anytime soon.