Jan NorrisOwners announce last day with little notice. Gone are famous apple pancakes, Dutch baby, deals for seniors.
Despite the syrup on the tables, the last meals served at the Original Pancake House on closing day, April 12, were for some bittersweet.
“It’s sad,” said Barbara TenEick, who came in with her husband, John, and his service dog, Sylvie. “We’ve been coming here every Sunday for four years.”
The friendly atmosphere reminded them of diners from their New Jersey neighborhoods, she said. “It was like a hometown place — everybody knew everybody.”
Management had announced the restaurant’s closure a week before, on Easter, with a simple sign on the door that noted the location’s last day would be April 12. A more detailed sign that thanked customers for their loyalty went up a few days later.
Manager Richard Ramirez, busy running food to tables, spoke briefly about the closing, saying that the lease at the plaza was up and that the owner chose not to renew it. The restaurant that had been a fixture of northern Palm Beach County for decades would not be relocated, he said.
The Original Pancake House, not to be confused with IHOP, was known for its generous, reasonably priced breakfasts and senior deals. It was part of a chain that began in Portland, Oregon, in 1953 and spread across the country. The corporate website lists more than 100 franchises open throughout the country.
The chain’s other locations in Palm Beach County in Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Royal Palm Beach, all franchisees, will remain open.
The Palm Beach Gardens restaurant, at 4364 Northlake Blvd., started on U.S. 1 in a plaza just north of PGA Boulevard. The site is now Divino’s Ristorante Italiano.
More than 20 years ago, it opened with a new owner in the Gardens Park Plaza where Winn Dixie is the anchor. Winn Dixie management announced it will close that store Sunday, April 19. The supermarket chain was sold in a deal with Aldi in 2025.
Daniela Capozio (left) and Lynn Mandato, former servers, flank Dan Horwitz, a customer who came in to eat daily. They call him “our husband.” (Photo: Jan Norris/Stet)
A gathering place for seniors for years
The Palm Beach Gardens restaurant remained a popular spot for seniors to gather till the last day. Joining them were several former servers, some who had opened the store.
“We had to come to say goodbye to our favorites,” said Daniela Capozio, a server who worked to open this location and was a favorite of many customers. “They requested my station. It was here,” she said, pointing to the surrounding front-room tables.
Just then, Capozio recognized a customer entering. She walked over to hug her, holding back tears. “It’s great to see you,” she said.
Barbara Niegelsen is from the nearby Square Lake neighborhood. She was smiling, but said of the closing, “It’s terrible. It’s not a good thing for us.”
She’d been coming here for years, many of those with a group of friends. “We all met here,” she said. “It is a social spot.”
She talked of another regular diner who couldn’t make it for the closing. “Jennifer brings in her dog, Olivia. She’s adorable. She eats strawberries and bacon.”
Their favorite servers come back
Mike and Cassie Romain came in for one last meal. They’d been coming “probably twice a month,” Mike said, since 2013.
They named favorite servers — “Lisa, Tracy, Delrika.” Only Delrika was still working there. Others have moved on to different jobs or restaurants.
They weren’t sure where they’ll go for their breakfasts now, though, Cassie said. “Maybe Sara’s Kitchen, Lili’s, or IHOP.”
Several other customers and servers greeted each other by name.
One was Dan Horwitz, seated at the first table with Capozio and Lynn Mandato, another former server who was there on the opening day and worked for 13 years waiting tables.
“I taught this gal everything she knows,” Horwitz said, laughing with Mandato.
“Heated syrup,” she said, nodding.
He is one of the daily regulars, rarely missing a breakfast here, except for the four months each year when he went back to his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. When he showed up for Sunday’s closing, there was a “Reserved” sign on the table with his name on it.
“The coffee’s hot, the butter’s warm, and the syrup is hot. Exactly everything you need in a pancake house,” he said.
The tasty stuff at Original Pancake House
The menu featured a variety of breakfast items popular with customers. Signature dishes included the apple pancake, a large pancake loaded with sautéed apples and cinnamon then baked. Another was the Dutch baby, a puffy, concave pancake that takes extra time in the oven. Customers were willing to wait for it; it stayed on the menu from the start when other items dropped off. Others mentioned the large rolled omelets and their variations for bargain prices.
But all the diners returned the conversation to the servers and their friendliness as a reason to return.
Back at the Horwitz table, Capozio was joking with him. “He’s my husband,” she said. She laughed. “No, not really my husband. But we call him that. Lynn used to call him her husband, and after she left, I got him. So he’s our husband. We have a lot of husbands here.”
Horwitz’s order was usually crepes, or sometimes the pancake or waffle senior specials — good deals, he said.
Those were the favorite of many.
Restaurant checked on patrons who missed a week
John TenEick called the specials for those aged 55-plus “the best deal in town. Pancakes, bacon and your coffee included. $10. Can’t beat it.”
Barbara TenEick favored the avocado toast, also a senior special. But it’s the friendly servers she’ll miss most. “We like them all.” She named Delrika Smith as one she requested.
“They cared about you. If somebody didn’t come for a week, someone would call and check on them,” she said.
Capozio confirmed one of the staff would phone the customers whose numbers they had if they were missing longer than a week. “We were like a family,” she said. “We took care of each other.”
“We had some good times here,” said Lisa Terry, another former server who left in 2020 after seven years. She stopped in for goodbye hugs with the crew before going to her job at TooJay’s Deli.
Geneva Jarman, a working server, wasn’t happy about the closing, but for a different reason. “I’m mad. We only got a week’s notice. They told us Easter Sunday they were closing this week.” She shook her head. “That’s bad.”
One of the staff confirmed that a customer thought so, too. “He came in and heard about that, and walked out before being seated. He said he wouldn’t give the owner one more penny of his business.”
Capozio offered Jarman her phone number and told her to call.
“There’s lots of places hiring,” she said.
Jan’s a journalist covering the South Florida dining scene for 30-plus years. (She knows where the bones and onion peels are buried.) She’s a Florida native, remembers the state pre-Disney, and travels frequently to visit family and friends from the Keys to the Panhandle.
