Buckwheat Pancakes

For my birthday celebration with my mom, we went to the Orignal Pancake House in Southfield, MI.  They only use 93 score butter, fresh grade AA eggs and pure whipping cream.  Everything I have eaten there has been fantastic, which is reason enough to go there to celebrate my birthday.  Except I was really missing Gumpy and one of his favorite breakfast foods, buckwheat pancakes.  And this is the best place in town to get buckwheat pancakes!

I can only recall one time Gumpy tried cooking.  His mother use to say that if you could read, you could cook.  As much as I loved my Great-Grandmother, she could hardly be more wrong.  Gumpy could read, he was the general secretary for the Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks.  That talent never translated into the kitchen.

One random morning, he tried making buckwheat pancakes for the family.  I was pretty young, so my memory of the event is not the sharpest.  However, I do recall that a lot of laughter and smoke was involved.  I bellied up to the table expecting the best and quickly realized that pure maple syrup can forgive many cooking sins.  For the uninitiated, the taste of burnt buckwheat pancakes is HORRIBLE.

Fast forward about 25 years to when I started going to the Original Pancake House.  I tried the buckwheat pancakes and discovered exactly why Gumpy liked them.  The texture, the flavor and the way they soaked up the syrup was incredible.  When I told him about my experience, we determined that I needed to take him there when he visited me again.

Thus began our brief traditon of the Original Pancake House before going to our annual Tiger Baseball game.  He would get the buckwheat pancakes with nice, thick, crispy bacon and a cup of black coffee.  I ordered mine with the corned beef hash.  Only after our plates where clear of food would we entertain the idea of leaving for the game.

One year, his friend Denny Smith went to the game with us because Gumpy could no longer make the drive safely from Detroit.  Denny protested that they had pancakes for breakfast before they left Vermontville.  Gumpy pointed out that you could never have enough good pancakes as we drove to the resturant.

My 36 birthday (otherwise known as Davemas) was a bittersweet celebration.  It was my first since Gumpy passed away.  To be able to go back to a place we both enjoyed so much let me know that he will always live on in my memories and in my heart.