Breakfast Cheer and Pancakes,
Los Angeles, CA, 1958
Twelve pancakes, about to be flipped, have just been remarkably well poured in a grid on a griddle. The cook, impeccably suited for the matter at hand in bleached whites finished with a snappy bowtie, has a spatula in hand, grin on his face and eyes on the bottle of beer in the hand of his less kempt pancake copilot. He looks to be on batter duty judging by the fact that he is standing before a generous stainless bowl of it. His look is that of a long sleeved paisley sport shirt and conversational apron stenciled with a caricature of himself at the moment.
Leafy vegetation, a moderately mod, two-slat-back, folding, wooden chair and a casually curled garden hose provide a lush backdrop, somewhere to sit and something to trip over. It’s a beautiful day in the backyard for a pancake breakfast. The barbeque is temporary. The bricks have no mortar holding them together. Oh how this inspires me to gather up a pile of used bricks and fashion a mortarless BBQ in my own backyard. When I do get my bricks organized in such a fashion I do hope I’m as well dressed as at least one of these two flapjacks!
There is something so special about being sociable over pancakes no matter what time of day it is or what size they are. Small, medium, large or silver dollar, dressed in real salted butter melted with syrup fresh from the sap of a Vermont maple, is a starchy, sugary, fatty Americana taste treat sensation of the highest order! Served alongside thick smoky bacon and farm fresh eggs any style reminds me of when I was a kid and we would occasionally, on a cold winter night, have breakfast for dinner, in the kitchen of course. If it’s too late in the season to have a backyard PANCAKE BREAKFAST CHEER PARTY have it inside during evening hours and call it the BREAKFAST FOR DINNER PARTY. But make sure not to forget the breakfast cheer!
Here’s to the cook, his co-pilot, mortarless BBQ’s, pancake cheer and YOU!
Charles Phoenix
October 12, 2009
Oh so sweet, brings back the memories of my families holiday time cookling adventures, Wonderful. A N D I am making the cherpumple for Christmas Eve company!
Oh so sweet, brings back the memories of my families holiday time cooling adventures, Wonderful. A N D I am making the cherpumple for Christmas Eve company!
It reminds me of the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfasts on Euclid Ave!
This picture makes me happy!
Look foward to your slides , love the new website.
Darius
Awwww
For the good old days!
Take me back to U.S.A. 1958!
Looks like a lot of fun. I like the new website.
It certainly looks like Charles in that bow tie. Are you channeling the past in person?
Doesn’t this look like fun – silly and very relaxed. We could use more
of that. I remember in the fifties and early sixties having surprise
pajama parties where we picked people up from their homes in
pajamas and all went to someone’s home to have a breakfast party.
That was in high school and was a bit on the edge but lots of fun.
Maybe it was more fun for those who planned it than those who
were totally unprepared but it’s a great memory.
Hi Charles,
For a second I thought that was YOU flipping the pancakes! Then I realized, you don’t have a “Way-Back” machine!
Luv, Jen W.
Charles,
Thanks so much for sending these slides with comments out. I think your email is the only one that I get and feel excited about. Both the photos and your comments always provide a much needed slice of fun each day.
Susan and I enjoyed talking with you in Denver and the Modernism show. We got a late summer visit in at Lakeside Amusement Park and after talking to you and I’m planning a trip to the Vila Capri and Connie in my hometown of KC when we visit over Thanksgiving.
Thanks again – the world needs more of what you do.
Scott.
Charles, the pancake man looks like you! Seeing this slide makes me hungry.
Charles,
That looks SO like you doing the fliping.
We called those slatted red-toned folding chairs Abbey Rents chairs, after the furniture rental company in California. Did everybody, or was it just my family??
Woah! …and I thought I INVENTED “BreakfastBQ”!
They beat me by 40 years!
What, nobody’s observed that the gent on the right bears a slightly spooky resemblance to Mr. Phoenix?
Beer is probably the secret part of the batter that make these the best pancakes in town! The Kiwanis Club of Claremont (famous for their pancake breakfasts) always put beer in the batter for the best pancakes around.
Mmmmm Pancakes.
Well! Your description certainly gave me a hankerin’ for a big pancake breakfast…sans beer. I love breakfast for dinner but somehow only do it once in a blue moon. You have inspired me to go out & buy all the fixin’s this very week, if not this very day! Love the new look of your website too.
(. . . it is the NARRATIVE that’s a gas.)