“Where shall we go today Joel?”
“I want pancakes John!”
… and so went to the Pancake Parlour.
I had almost intended it as a joke, it turned out to be a really good idea.
Technology:
Possibly the best place yet, if not a very close second to the Front. The WiFi was fast enough for our needs, and the mobile coverage was great considering we were underground. Power-points were available for those of us who don’t have amazing laptops that never run our of power like Johnboy does.
The only downside was the system for getting on the WiFi. It required getting a small card with a unique username and password printed on it. These logins would eventually expire, causing us to hunt for another.
A small annoyance, but a notable one. Getting another password was as simple as asking the staff, and the expiration seemed to be based on usage instead of time which means you’re unlikely to ever get stuck with slow internet due to someone torrenting there.
Food:
It’s the Pancake Parlour. it does decent enough pancakes, particularly if you’ve got a sweet tooth. I had pancakes with icecream for breakfast. I feel like I am suffering for it now, but I regret nothing.
Be warned, everything is very rich.
Johnboy put up a brekkie review so check that out.
Productivity:
Brilliant. The place was quiet. It was almost empty when we arrived in the morning, which might not be great for their business, but suits our purposes.
It started to fill about 10.30ish, but the size of the venue and the privacy of the booths meant this didn’t impact on our work.
Small breaks in output when we needed to request new passwords aside, everything ran very smoothly.
Coffee:
The Johnboy-o-matic says:
Famous for foul filter coffee, they have got an espresso machine and made a perfectly passable flat white. The lemongrass and ginger tea is well worth a spin too.
Comfort:
Great, the seats were nice the tables were clean and it was very easy to just relax in there. The tables may have been a tiny bit high, once again creating that illusion that you’re a child trying to type on a grow up’s desk. However like I said, only a tiny bit high, so it was a tiny illusion. Easily ignored.
The music deserves a special mention. For a large part of the morning our soundtrack consisted mainly of funk and soul. This greatly increased my comfort.
Service:
Fine. The staff were nice and attentive and our orders appeared and disappeared quickly. They seemed to have no problem with Johnboy and I occupying a desk for half the day which was nice too.
Other People:
We never really saw anyone. If you favour a working environment without distraction or interference from others, I can highly recommend it. If you need to be surrounded by activity, or just love people watching, then this is not the place for you.
Conclusion:
I really wasn’t expecting to write this, but the Pancake Parlour is one of the better places we have worked… in fact if it weren’t for the fact I don’t think my stomach could take it (and we don’t really vote on things like this) I might have voted for this to become our regular location.
Everything from the location, to the internet access, to the fact I can buy ice cream spiders there all works in the Pancake Parlour’s favour.
Thank you Mr. Hubbard!*
*I don’t believe Mr. Hubbard is actually responsible for Civic’s nice WiFi, but I thought I’d thank him none the less.