The Story in Van Winkle Hollow
A quiet place along Highway 12 between Rogers and Eureka Springs holds...
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Some places you visit on vacation, and others become part of the vacation itself. In Hot Springs, breakfast at The Pancake Shop falls firmly into the latter category.
I have eaten here through many seasons of life, from college days and girls’ weekends to couples’ trips, family getaways, and mornings spent showing out-of-town guests around one of my favorite Arkansas cities. When I am staying downtown, there is something quintessentially Hot Springs about walking down Central Avenue and putting our name on the list for breakfast at The Pancake Shop.
Maybe it is because they have been doing essentially the same thing since 1940.
The pancakes are still hot, the coffee keeps coming, the sausage is absolutely worth getting out of bed for, and the old-school breakfast experience is exactly why generations keep coming back.
Opening The Pancake Shop in Hot Springs
The story begins in May 1940, when Albah D. Mason opened Mason’s Pancake Shop at 133 Central Avenue. Hot Springs was already a bustling destination, drawing visitors to the thermal waters, grand hotels, and attractions along Central Avenue and Bathhouse Row. A breakfast restaurant fit naturally into the rhythm of a busy resort town.
An original menu from those early days is still displayed inside the restaurant, offering a glimpse into how long pancakes have been hitting the griddle here. Coffee was once just five cents a cup. (Can you imagine?!)
In the 1950s, the Conway family from Chicago purchased the restaurant. They renamed it The Pancake Shop and moved the business across Central Avenue to 216 Central Avenue, where it is today.
Moving and Staying
While The Pancake Shop moved across the street, in many ways, it stayed put.
Tom and Ruth Ardman purchased the restaurant in 1966, when their daughter, Keeley, was just six. Tom became the face of the business until his death in 1980, after which Ruth took the lead. She built a reputation for making customers feel like guests in her own home, and people lined up along Central Avenue for “breakfast with Ruth.”
Keeley returned home and joined her mother in the family business in 1995. Today, she and her husband, Steve DeSalvo, continue a tradition spanning more than eight decades.
Through different owners, changing generations, and a downtown that has evolved tremendously around it, The Pancake Shop has resisted the urge to reinvent itself.
And that might be its greatest charm.
History is Hanging on the Walls
Walk through the door, and you will quickly understand that The Pancake Shop is not trying to recreate an old diner. It is the old diner.
Tables sit close together. Coffee cups stay full. Servers move quickly through a busy dining room, and the walls are lined with photographs and pieces of Hot Springs history. Look closely, and you will spot familiar faces, from local personalities to nationally known celebrities who have stopped for breakfast over the years.
The restaurant has welcomed generations of tourists, entertainers, athletes, and other recognizable visitors, but the regular families filling the tables are just as much a part of its story.
And yes, you may have to wait.
Put your name on the list, grab a cup of coffee from the simple sidewalk coffee station, and settle in for a few minutes. Even when the crowd looks overwhelming, the line moves. On our recent visit, we were told it would be 20 minutes, which gave us just enough time to do what any good Hot Springs visitor should do while waiting for pancakes.
We went shopping!
While You Wait, Shop Next Door
The Savory Pantry sits right next door and opens early enough for Pancake Shop guests to browse while they wait for a table.
Keeley opened the specialty food and kitchen store in 1998, and today it feels like a natural extension of the restaurant. The shelves are carefully curated with beautiful kitchenware, gifts, gourmet foods, and products from some of our favorite Arkansas makers.
It is the kind of store you go into because you have 20 minutes to kill and come out with Arkansas-made chocolates, pantry treats, a new kitchen find, and gifts you did not know you needed.
But Are the Pancakes Good?
“Le duh.” Of course you can get pancakes. That is probably why you opened this article in the first place.
My suggestion is to choose traditional buttermilk or buckwheat pancakes, then add blueberries or chocolate chips if that is how you like to stack them.
Portions are plentiful, and the rest of the menu stays firmly in classic breakfast territory, featuring eggs, omelets, breakfast meats, French toast and other familiar favorites.
But I am personally convinced the sausage patties are reason enough to come for breakfast.
The Pancake Shop has served sausage from Hot Springs’ G.E. Hawthorn Meat Company since the 1950s. The local family meat business dates to 1937, making this one longtime Hot Springs business serving the product of another.
And you can taste the difference.
Order sausage in your omelet, but definitely get a patty alongside your pancakes, too. Break off a little piece with your fork before taking a bite of pancake. The salty, savory sausage with sweet syrup is the bite that will make you glad you got up early and made it downtown before the line got too long.
You will find another Arkansas name on the menu, too. The center-cut ham steak comes from Petit Jean Meats.
Then there is the French toast.
The table next to us insisted it was the best thing on the menu, and I must admit, watching it arrive made a convincing case. Thick slices are dipped in the house batter and fried just long enough to create a crisp, crunchy exterior while leaving the center soft.
But this is The Pancake Shop. Order the pancakes first. You can get the French toast when you come back!
That is really the story of The Pancake Shop. Hot Springs keeps changing, visitors keep discovering something new downtown, and generations of families keep coming back to this little breakfast spot on Central Avenue.
Put your name on the list. Shop while you wait. Order the sausage with your pancakes.
Just trust me!
The Pancake Shop
216 Central Avenue, Hot Springs
501-624-5720
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Hours: 7 a.m. to 1:00 pm, seven days a week
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