$ – cheap eats

Elmo’s is a family-oriented diner in a college town (next to first year dorms at Duke). They’re opened pretty late from what I can remember, and it was definitely still busy at 10PM on the weekends (we had to wait for a table!). The decor and atmosphere didn’t make a lasting impression on my mind, so why the 4 stars?

I love blueberry pancakes. In years before, I used to be a naive and unrefined novice. I even though IHOP’s pancakes with sugary blueberry sauce on top = heaven, but how wrong I was! This may be sad to admit, but Elmo’s was probably the first pancake I had experienced with fruit cooked into the batter, rather than just sitting on top. Folding blueberries into the pancake ensures the sweet expression of fruit in every bite minus all the sugar! (and minus the fear that there isn’t enough to go around!) Elmo’s had just the thing I was looking for that night, and since then, I’ve been making my own folded-into-the-batter pancakes with fruit infused syrup (less thick, more flavor).

I can’t say much else about the other menu options, but since this was a total revealation, Elmo’s gets my 4 stars.