All about us

We began the Pancake Parlour adventure in 1965 with a restaurant in Adelaide. We had high hopes, little money and a building site... a burnt-out delicatessen we'd secured for 5 pounds a week ($10 per week). "What kind of food will you serve?" the people asked as they peered into the building site. "Pancakes!" we answered. "Sunday supper with lemon and sugar!" "A whole restaurant?" they answered. "Good luck".

We opened, held our breath and they came. From Bill Hickling, our first customer, to a swell of patrons, then it turned into chaos. Customers washing dishes, waiting tables and just waiting! "Come into the kitchen and tell us how you'd like your pancakes" we proclaimed on a sign at the door. We had no menu nor any thought of writing one. Our customers told us what they wanted and we promptly forgot. We admired their patience and they recognised our inept zeal.

The first pancakes in the first kitchen in Adelaide.

At the first Adelaide Festival of the Arts, we were the discovery of the then famous. A young Barry Humphries suppered with his friends after his show and was taunted by a table of his aroused audience. Arbitration was needed but it was too low on our chaotic list of priorities.

Soon Peter Von Czarnecki and Ken Ellis from the Adelaide Advertiser created our first menu. We gained some respite as our customers tried to figure them out. Black whimsical type on grey strawboard. Older folk, we now understand, took them out into the street thinking it was poor light that made them such a mystery. Peter still works for us creating the many mysteries which enchant our patrons at all our restaurants.

Believe it or not...the sign says
"coffee... two shillings a cup".

In 1969 we opened in Melbourne's Market Lane. Restaurants were now licensed. America was on the moon. In 1973 we renovated an old tannery in Geelong near the wool sheds. Then we marched to the sea in Frankston and manhandled an impossibly large stained glass Lovely Lady into the front of the restaurant. The sun streaming through her today still invokes an air of reverence.

Click on the 1965 bee-hive hair-styles in the picture of our first restaurant in a tiny lane in Adelaide's entertainment area.






	The opening of Centrepoint in the heart of the city.

In 1978 we went to Sydney and opened Pancakes on The Rocks in the historic area. Our hot air balloon broke its tether and flew over Sydney Harbour Bridge, roaming high over the skies of Sydney to the amazement of the 6 o'clock news. It finally settled in the Hawksbury River and the "Rocks" was launched. In 1979 we moved further down the lane at Market Lane to an old factory which we demolished then rebuilt as an old factory restaurant. At the same time we opened at Centrepoint in the heart of the Bourke Street Mall. We blocked off Swanston Street and Bourke Street with our parade before the City Council thought of doing it permanently. It was a very hot day and we desperately tried to turn on the air conditioning to cool the 200 invited guests. We were unsuccessful. Thank God! The next day when we finally turned it on we filled the restaurant with building dust

In 1982 we got serious about expansion. We opened in Canberra then took a big gamble with Doncaster. Peter Von Czarnecki created a moving pancake race that continues to delight patrons on the hour. By now we were mainting the basic Victorian elements as features in our restaurants. Solid timbers, polished brass, etched glass and exposed bricks. We begain taking these materials back into the future as we moved into modern premises.

We then allied with the Hoyts Cinema Cororation as they pioneered large cinema complexes within shopping centres. Chadstone was the first. At the same time as Chadstone we played with a Deco theme in a large Thirties building on the Princes Highway at Dandenong. Our replica of the art deco totem of the Chrysler Building in New York is still a mystery to the occasional New Yorker partaking of our pancakes.

Then came Northland. We overcame 15 metre high walls with huge blowups of our characters and a monkey in a propller driven dirigible. Our characters, namely the monkey, the telephone man, Granny and the Tossing Lady are all under the aegis of the Lovely Lady and follow us everywhere. Highpoint City followed. Then Forest Hill Chase in 1990 with Granny in her purpose-built Maple Syrup Transport Plane. Peter Von Czarnecki also installed a Maple Syrup "refinery" built from his weekly forays into scrap metal yards.

Since then we've opened a Parlour and a Skiosk on Mount Bulla and opened at the famous Jam Factory in South Yarra, another cinema and shopping complex. Among the features at the Jam Factory is our Giant Harold Lloyd clock, another Peter Von extravaganza.

Along the way we have been supported by fantastic people in all directions. They've worked with us, eaten with us, chided us when we get off track. We guess we have become an institution. Our ex-staff have gone to other professions, to run other businesses, raise families and bring their grandchildren in for birthday parties. We still feel "wild and crazy" about the Pancake game and we're percieved to be part of the establishment. We are filled with enthusiasm about the future as we continue to make the humble pancake awsome.


	Other pages relating to the company are scattered through the web site. For example there's another page of " Nostalgia" showing some of our early restaurants you can look at by choosing the appropriate links or choose the highlighted text for Who's Who at the Pancake Parlour.