Despite all the hype and hoopla about the creativeness of contemporary American chefs, much of it justified, this country’s most significant contribution to the world of gastronomy remains breakfast.
I am thinking of the American breakfast as it was before the word “power” was attached to it and, due to health and diet concerns, almost all the substance was taken out.
This ideal breakfast of the past might contain fruit, cereal, bread (something with more character than a flavorless bagel to be sure)-all still on the “should-eat” list. But it also included butter, cream, bacon (or ham or sausage or hash), strong coffee and maybe even a slice of pie-all currently on the “no-no” or “never” list.
If you were lucky, you might even be served a stack of pancakes to coat with butter and drown in syrup.
In fact, despite the word-association synergy between bacon and eggs and breakfast, the centerpiece of my dream morning meal is the pancake-or, more accurately, several of them.
James Beard, the late dean of American food writers, summed up the pancake’s allure in his book “Beard on Food.”
“There is something very warm and friendly about the smell of pancakes cooking on a griddle,” he wrote, “and the sight of that big comforting stack with its accompanying warm butter and warm honey or maple syrup, little crispy sausages and bacon, does the heart good. This is a great meal.”
Today’s nutritionally correct surely would move to strike the “does the heart good” phrase, but in their hearts could they deny the truth of the final sentence?
In any event, the old-fashioned breakfast has become an occasional indulgence for me and something that is not all that easy to find when the urge to eat one strikes.
Or so I thought until I responded to an invitation for breakfast from Dale and Jean Eisenberg.
One of Beard’s favorite breakfast haunts, located in his hometown of Portland, Ore., was the Original Pancake House. Perhaps the name is familiar. Though no McDonalds, 14 or 15 of the 55 Original Pancake franchises are in the Chicago area. The Eisenbergs own three of them. The “original” Original Pancake House in the area was opened by the Walker Brothers in Wilmette in 1960.
Almost as soon as we met, at the Original Pancake House in Park Ridge, Jean Eisenberg, who is polite but not shy, asked, “What’s unusual about this place?”
Politely, she answered the question for me.
“Everything here is made from scratch, all the ingredients are fresh. We do things other restaurants don’t want to do today (due to expense for ingredients or labor).”
And it turns out to be true that this restaurant (and, presumably, other Original Pancake Houses plus several other breakfast speciality spots listed below) does represent a virtual time warp in which the old-fashioned American breakfast is prepared in an old-fashioned, low-tech way.
This is not a review. The ambiance of the restaurant was homey and the service staff appeared cordial, but my focus was on pancakes and an assortment of other foods from the menu that were made to order. With prices such as $6.75 for the signature apple and German pancakes and $4.50 or more for all but one of the nine others, “we’re not inexpensive,” acknowledged Dale Eisenberg. “We need people who appreciate quality and value for money.”
The heart of the menu, understandably, is pancakes. In addition, it lists seven waffles, five crepes, nine omelets and six egg dishes. For lunch and dinner customers, soups, salads and sandwiches (but no deep-fried foods) have been added.
A man with a mission, I tried a blueberry pancake. It was tender and not too dense, with the fruit still firm. I tried a sourdough flapjack. It had more texture and an agreeable aftertaste. The German pancake, which the customer flavors to taste with butter, powdered sugar and lemon, was a delight. The lacy potato pancake was crusty and not at all greasy, while the baked pancake piled high with apples that is “our specialty” answered my need for both breakfast and dessert for some days to come.
There are 13 choices in all. The pancakes with chocolate chips, with pecans, with bananas, even the buttermilk pancakes I left for future visits.
The Eisenbergs had made it clear that memorable pancakes do not just happen.
Among the steps that are taken are the following:
– Original Pancake provides the franchise with recipes, but no prepared mix. The batters are prepared daily (even the sourdough starter is created in the kitchen), using flour from fiber-rich, unbleached spring wheat. They are ladled out by hand and cooked to order by a real person, not a machine. “It’s not just ingredients, it’s how you handle them and cook the pancakes that make them special,” Dale Eisenberg says.
(Actually, the apple pancakes, which take more than 20 minutes to cook and are the restaurant’s best-selling item, are baked on an ongoing basis.)
– Eggs are fresh, never powdered or frozen.
– Apples and potatoes are fresh, too, and peeled and cut or grated daily. Juice is fresh-squeezed and fruit syrups are made on premises.
– The real butter used for cooking is clarified (to remove impurities and make it less liable to burn) and the same quality butter is whipped and served with orders.
– The coffee, freshly brewed, is stronger than normal “to help cut the sweetness of the pancakes,” Dale Eisenberg says.
– Rich, whipping-grade cream is used in the kitchen and offered at table to accompany coffee.
– The meats I tasted, thick-sliced Canadian bacon and bacon, were first-rate.
The Eisenbergs answer concerns about dietary aspects of their menu head on.
“It may not be the place for someone on a strict diet to come,” acknowledges Jean. “But this is not un-nutritious,” Dale says. “It’s wholesome, old-fashioned comfort food. We haven’t cut the size of the portions. Except for adding the sandwiches we haven’t changed much at all. A pancake house builds memories. People don’t come here for trendy food. They come to have what they had the last time and maybe what they had as a kid.”
Recounting an experience in the Pacific Northwest, James Beard wrote, “it was a dream, a big, tender, beautiful pancake which spread over a huge serving plate, accompanied by homemade jam, heated syrup and whipped butter. (It was) light, tender, flavorful, and everything a good pancake should be.”
The Original Pancake House I visited is at 106 S. Northwest Hwy., Park Ridge, 708-696-1381. Others are listed in the telephone directory.
Several additional outstanding breakfast restaurants:
– Lou Mitchell’s, 563 W. Jackson Blvd., 312-939-3111.
– Ina’s Kitchen, 934 W. Webster Ave., 312-525-1116.
– Four Seasons Hotel, 120 E. Delaware St., 312-280-8800.
– Harris, 3148 W. Irving Park Rd., 312-539-0300.
– Omega, 9100 W. Golf Rd., Niles, 708-296-7777.
– Wishbone, 1001 W. Washington St., 312-850-2663, also 1800 W. Grand Ave., 312-829-3597.
– Farrago, 733 N. Wells St., 312-951-7350.
