Just call them the pancake faithful.
They filled the parking lot of The Original Pancake House at 782 E. Broadway on Sunday morning as the popular breakfast diner opened this month after a July 11 fire forced its closure.
Megan McCornack, who graduated from the University in August, ate with her fiancé, 2005 University graduate Chris Perdue, for the first time since the fire.
The self-proclaimed “semi-regulars” say they like eating there because of the food and atmosphere. It’s also where their parents met each other for the first time.
McCornack said she won’t eat her mother’s homemade pancakes. Only the “49’er Flap Jacks” will satisfy her appetite.
Customers also say they spot current and former University football and basketball players, including former NBA Toronto Raptors forward Luke Jackson, eating at the restaurant.
“It’s why my dad eats here,” Perdue said.
During the summer, however, it looked like the restaurant had served its last pancake.
A cook arrived to work at about 4:15 a.m. on July 11 and discovered flames coming out the back door of the restaurant, said Eugene Fire Department spokesman Glen Potter.
The fire started in a basket full of towels saturated in bacon grease that spontaneously combusted. Grease can evaporate to cause heat and even a fire, Potter said. Firefighters had the fire under control shortly before 5 that morning, but not before the blaze caused an estimated $400,000 in damage.
Regulars were saddened by the loss, said Dawn Taylor, who operates the restaurant with her husband, Daryle. They received about 15 calls a day from customers asking when the restaurant would reopen after the fire.
“They mourned,” Taylor said. “They were lost and didn’t know where else to go.”
The fire damaged nearly the entire restaurant because of its smoke, Taylor said. The owners replaced insulation, flooring, tables, chairs, fridges and ovens.
Taylor now estimates the remodel cost roughly $750,000.
After finishing breakfast on Sunday, McCornack said the restaurant’s interior looks better or about the same since the July fire.
More than 20 employees were displaced, Taylor said. Most were unemployed or found temporary employment elsewhere. All but one returned to work this month.
After the fire, the owners decided to reopen the restaurant as soon as possible.
“You can’t close this place,” Taylor said, adding the restaurant is a Eugene icon. “If we didn’t reopen, somebody else would have opened an Original Pancake House. We would have been foolish not to.”
So far, the restaurant has seen non-stop business, Taylor said, calling the weekend’s breakfast rush a “madhouse.”
“It’s been like somebody opened the floodgates,” Taylor said. “It’s been like normal – and then some.”
On Sunday, customers waited for a seat in a line that overflowed the restaurant and went out the door. A sign greeted customers: “Now open. Welcome back.”
The owners didn’t advertise the November reopening, but Taylor said customers heard about it through word of mouth and media coverage.
The Taylors have owned the franchise since October 2004. Daryle Taylor has worked there since 1969, and the restaurant originally opened on Sixth Avenue in Eugene in 1965.
Dawn Taylor said the pancake house is the oldest restaurant still operating in Eugene.
Les Highet and Erma Hueneke founded the first Original Pancake House in Portland in 1953, according to the company’s Web site.
East Broadway near the University has seen breakfast diners come and go in the past few months. Todd’s Place (355 E. Broadway) opened in September in the former IHOP, and Cafe Yumm! (730 E. Broadway) opened in October at the former Elmer’s.
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Flapjack fans flock to the reopening of The Original Pancake House
Daily Emerald
November 19, 2007
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