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Several years ago my family and I attempted to share breakfast together at Walker Brothers The Original Pancake House in Wilmette, IL Walker Brothers. After a fiasco there (long story) we ended up elsewhere and I didn't get my pancakes. During this trip, it was critical that we eat some of those famous pancakes, and we did!

Jessica hung about the hotel room this morning while I slept in, until a late 8:30am CST, which is very late for me. After slowly getting myself together, we got in our rental car and started driving. It was about 30 minutes driving, but fortunately there was no line. That doesn't mean it wasn't busy. Even at 9:45am(ish) they were doing quite a bit of business and handling it very well. Heck, even before we got to open the menus we were drinking our coffee and tea.

In an interesting change, Jessica already knew what she wanted to eat -- the Apple Pancakes. Walker Bros. is famous for these treats and they are impressive. We'll come back to that. I carefully read through the menu and then asked the waiter for a suggestion amongst the classic pancakes. He said the blueberry and the banana were the two most popular. I selected the Banana Pancakes; we also ordered a side of hashbrowns and bacon.

Have you ever seen the movie "Defending Your Life"? Through the stay in Judgement City the citizens can eat anything they want, as much as they want, and the food is picturesque, always tastes great, and is ready almost instantly. Well, this is about as close as I've ever gotten to that dream. Our food was ready almost instantly! It seemed as if they turned around and had it in hand.

The Apple Pancake set down on our table and the table almost collapsed under the shear weight. It was about nine inches across and two inches tall, steaming hot, piled with apples, and gooey with brown sugar and cinnamon. It was exactly what we thought it would be, although much sweeter than Jessica had hoped. The taste was like that of a giant cinnamon bun, filled with apples. No matter how hard she tried, Jessica just could not eat the whole thing, although partly because it was too sweet for her.


My stack of pancakes was laid out in a perfect pinwheel with a large dollop of whipped, milky butter in the center. The waiter was incredibly thoughtful and let me know that many people request the Tangerine Suzette Sauce on the side, I thought that sounded like a wise idea and it worked out well.


These are the best pancakes I ever ordered! I do recall one time my friend's dad made slightly better, but they were never repeated and he wouldn't share the recipe, so I guess those are disqualified since one time could be a fluke :) Unlike other banana pancakes, the bananas were mashed into the batter, so the flavor was consistent throughout the pancakes. The pancakes were perfectly cooked, moist, and super fluffy. The whipped, sweet butter added just the right touch. Keeping the sauce on the side allowed me to use it on some of the pancakes; use some real maple syrup (not that terrible corn syrup at other places). Jessica felt the pancakes had a bit of a baking powder taste, but I didn't detect it at all. I would order these seven days a week and twice on Sunday.


The Hash Browns, were thick shreds of lightly pan fried potatoes with tons of melty cheddar cheese and lots of chunks of ham. My amazement continued, as all our food truly looked exactly the same as in the menu and was so appealing. We were a bit upset that the potatoes themselves were completely underseasoned and slightly undercooked, but that didn't seem to stop us from cleaning the plate.

My one complaint about the experience was the bacon. While it was definitely thick-cut, probably cut on location, and likely baked (so that it wasn't greasy) it had no particular flavor other than the cured flavor. It's a bad thing when I don't devour all the bacon in sight.


The whole meal was served piping hot, Jessica's coffee cup was refilled constantly, the service was incredibly friendly and helpful (which seems to be a consistent theme around these parts), and the price was good. We particularly liked the masterful way Walker Bros. had staff dedicated to their specific tasks: people just filling coffee; people taking orders; people delivering orders; people at the register; etc. Everything moved along smoothly and quickly, yet we never felt rushed. This is a New Yorker's dream. Sadly there is nothing like this in New York. No place to get a breakfast close to this fast and good and inexpensive.

So it took years for me to finally try it, and driving back to Chicago we hit a TON of traffic, but to have a phenomenal breakfast that made me feel like I had died and gone to heaven (or at least Judgement City), it was all worth it.

posted by Lon at 5:36 PM 18 Comments add a comment