The Pancake Shop

The Pancake Shop has been serving breakfast exclusively since 1940. As one of the oldest family-owned and operated restaurants in the state, we have a long history of cooking home-style breakfasts for our loyal family of customers. The original restaurant was owned by Albah D. Mason and operated under the name of Mason's Pancake Shop. It was locate... d at 133 Central Avenue, across the street from our current location and today the site of The Spring Hotel. If you look closely, you'll find the original menu from Mason's Pancake Shop still hanging on the wall. Coffee then was a nickel a cup! Sometime in the 1950's (we're not sure of the year) the restaurant was purchased by Chuck and Olive Conway of Chicago. The Conway's changed the name to The Pancake Shop and moved it across the street to our current location at 216 Central Avenue. The present space had been home to several other restaurants and businesses over the years, including The Liberty Café, a souvenir photo shop, and, for many years, The Italian Kitchen, owned and operated by an Italian immigrant by the name of Amedeo Ritenuti. A recent visitor to the restaurant relayed a story of how, as a boy, he delivered Italian delicacies from Chicago to Amedeo's Italian Kitchen. The Pancake Shop was purchased by my parents, Tom and Ruth Ardman, on May 15th, 1966, when I was six years old. My father was the primary face of the business until he fell ill in the late seventies. When he passed away in 1980, my mother stepped in, and The Pancake Shop flourished under her leadership. I grew up in the restaurant, and watched my mother closely. With her very elegant and personal style, she greeted everyone with her warm smile and reveled in the fact that she was the oldest merchant on Central Avenue. I joined my mother in the business in 1995, and had the pleasure of working with her for almost ten years. She passed away in 2004, and is greatly missed by all who knew her. Her customers remember her fondly, and that encourages us to work hard to fill her very large shoes! ...Read More