PANCAKES...MAD ABOUT PANCAKES
View allAll Photos Tagged johnnycake
Ritual morning conversations at The Commons. Felt like a step back in time. Great place for breakfast, gossip and sealing friendships.
Little Compton, RI
January 3, 2021
"Gray's General Store is a general store located at 4 Main Street in Adamsville, Rhode Island. Founded in 1788, it operated for almost 225 years and was reputed to be the oldest continually operating general store in the United States.
The store featured an old-fashioned marble soda fountain, cigar and tobacco cases, and Rhode Island johnnycakes. In 2007, U.S. Senator Jack Reed and then-Governor Donald Carcieri issued proclamations naming Gray's as the oldest continuously run general store in the country. The store was owned and operated by the same family since 1879, entailing seven generations. Gray's also was the location of the first post office in Little Compton, founded in 1804.
Gray's closed on Sunday, July 29, 2012, after the death of its proprietor due lack of interest in keeping the store open by relatives, citing that "the shop's finances aren't sustainable and a supermarket down the street has siphoned away business."
The store re-opened in the summer of 2013."
100 degrees F in burning hot sun
she walks the beach
to and fro
10 hours
a day
selling
fried
"Johny cakes"
to
drunk
sun worshipping
rich
tourists.....................
some who mock her
or blame her for her poverty
her take home pay
maybe 1-2 dollars
maybe nothing .....................
Boca Chica
Photography’s new conscience
Years ago I had a friend living in Corona who took me here. Fast forward 20 or so years, I went to an old colleague's birthday party in a nearby city and stayed in Corona for the night. I went to this joint the next morning. They are known for their johnnycakes.
Picture taken 03/09/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
8 days since the last visit, some considerable progress has been made. The entire interior has been gutted. Awnings, doors, and windows removed, and the garden center area has been demolished for the most part. I'll be back occasionally to take update photos.
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
ENGLISH
Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to the Neolithic era. The first breads produced were probably cooked versions of a grain-paste, made from ground cereal grains and water, and may have been developed by accidental cooking or deliberate experimentation with water and grain flour. Descendants of these early breads are still commonly made from various grains worldwide, including the Mexican tortilla, Indian chapatis, rotis and naans, Scottish oatcake, North American johnnycake, Middle Eastern Pita bread (Kmaj in Arabic and Pitot in Hebrew) and Ethiopian injera. The basic flat breads of this type also formed a staple in the diet of many early civilizations with the Sumerians eating a type of barley flat cake, and the 12th century BC Egyptians being able to purchase a flat bread called ta from stalls in the village streets.
The development of leavened bread can probably also be traced to prehistoric times. Yeast spores occur everywhere, including the surface of cereal grains, so any dough left to rest will become naturally leavened. Although leavening is likely of prehistoric origin, the earliest archaeological evidence is from ancient Egypt. Scanning electron microscopy has detected yeast cells in some ancient Egyptian loaves. However, ancient Egyptian bread was made from emmer wheat and has a dense crumb. In cases where yeast cells are not visible, it is difficult, by visual examination, to determine whether the bread was leavened. As a result, the extent to which bread was leavened in ancient Egypt remains uncertain.
There were multiple sources of leavening available for early bread. Airborne yeasts could be harnessed by leaving uncooked dough exposed to air for some time before cooking. Pliny the Elder reported that the Gauls and Iberians used the foam skimmed from beer to produce "a lighter kind of bread than other peoples." Parts of the ancient world that drank wine instead of beer used a paste composed of grape juice and flour that was allowed to begin fermenting, or wheat bran steeped in wine, as a source for yeast. The most common source of leavening however was to retain a piece of dough from the previous day to utilize as a form of sourdough starter.
Even within antiquity there was a wide variety of breads available. In the Deipnosophistae, the Greek author Athenaeus describes some of the breads, cakes, cookies, and pastries available in the Classical world. Among the breads mentioned are griddle cakes, honey-and-oil bread, mushroom shaped loaves covered in poppy seeds, and the military specialty of rolls baked on a spit. The type and quality of flour used to produce bread could also vary as noted by Diphilus when he declared "bread made of wheat, as compared with that made of barley, is more nourishing, more digestible, and in every way superior." In order of merit, the bread made from refined flour comes first, after that bread from ordinary wheat, and then the unbolted, made of flour that has not been sifted."
More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread
------------------------------
CASTELLANO
El pan fue el alimento básico de la humanidad desde la Prehistoria. Probablemente, los primeros panes estarían hechos con harinas de bellotas o de hayucos. Los arqueólogos han desenterrado fragmentos de pan ácimo en las excavaciones de los poblados cercanos a los lagos suizos. Se sabe que los egipcios elaboraban pan desde hace mucho tiempo y de ellos datan también las primeras evidencias arqueológicas de la utilización de la levadura en el pan, se cree que descubrieron la fermentación por casualidad. El pan comido por los Hebreos no llevaba ningún tipo de levadura.
En Roma, en la República ya había hornos públicos. Para los legionarios romanos el pan era un alimento habitual y era corriente que su dieta fuese en gran medida aceitunas y pan. Se les entregaba tres libras de trigo al día, que trituraban en un molinillo de mano compartido por un grupo limitado de soldados. La harina se hacía bucellatum o se metía en el horno para hacer pan. En algunas regiones que no formaban parte del imperio como Alemania o Suecia, algunos habitantes que habían combatido en el ejercito romano adoptaban el consumo de pan, y de aquí se extendía a sectores de la población.
Este gran consumo de pan durante el imperio romano implicó la gran importancia que tuvo el cultivo y comercio del trigo.
Con la caída del imperio romano se produjo un desabastecimiento de trigo en casi toda Europa, que ya se había acostumbrado de manera masiva a su consumo. Las exportaciones hacia el norte desaparecieron por completo. Prueba de la amplia difusión del pan en esa época la palabra inglesa "lady" significa en inglés antiguo "la persona que amasa el pan".
En Escandinavia, la población, ante la escasez de trigo tuvo acostumbrarse a elaborar panes de centeno y cebada, siendo corriente que se le añadiese a la masa corteza de pino molida.
En la Edad Media empiezan a elaborarse distintos tipos de pan ante la escasez de trigo, y como consecuencia de ello comienza su comercio; el pan blanco era un privilegio de los ricos y el pan negro de cebada, centeno o avena era para el resto de la población. Se hacía a mano, en el propio hogar o en hornos públicos.
Más info: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan
Picture taken 03/08/25
Sears Auto Center (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Set to become a new city fire station, relocating from an older building up the road.
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
plating today's breakfast :)
History of Pancakes
Pancakes are ancient food. The word pancakes appears in print as early as 1430. Pancakes may have been around since Neolithic humans domesticated einkorn wheat, ground it into flour mixed with bird’s egg and goat’s milk and poured the batter on a heated rock.
It happened before there were pans and long before ovens. The ancient cooks dropped a little gruel on a hot rock of campfire, resulting in thin cakes that were tastier than plain gruel or cakes cooked directly in the embers of the fire.
Perhaps because of this ancient lineage, pancakes are associated with rituals in many countries – Shrove Tuesday, Candlemas, and Chanukah to name a few.
From these rudimentary beginnings sprang a vast array of bread and pancakes, but the two were originally the same.
The ancient Greeks used griddles to cook a flat loaf drizzled with honey called ‘kreion’ and cakes of soft cheese.
The Romans as revealed in the cookbook by Apicius made dishes similar to modern pancakes.
Medieval pancakes, frequently made form barley or rye and lacking leavening, were relatively heavy affairs. They were quite different from contemporary fluffy or tender versions.
Pancake Day is another name for Shrive Tuesday, from the custom of eating pancakes on this day, still generally observed.
Shrive is an old Saxon word, of which shrove is a corruption and signifies confession.
The custom of dining on pancakes on Shrove Tuesday is Roman Catholic origin that on the day when all rejoiced alike in the forgiveness of their sins, all should feast alike on the same simple dish. The pancakes were prepared, denoted by the ringing of the ‘pancake bell’ from the church tower.
Pancakes are an essential part of a classic American breakfast. One of George Washington’s breakfast foods were pancakes that literally in maple syrup. He would plunge each piece of his pancake under the syrup, sopping it good before he ate it.
Pancakes somehow evolved to be exclusively Sunday morning or overnight-guest breakfast fare. Since they are easy to make and there are so many different ways to prepare them, pancakes are a favorite’s hearty food to cook for a crowd.
The first colonial settlers were taught by local Native American to make griddlecakes from Rhode Island Narragansett maize. These griddlecakes soon became a staple, known among the settlers as johnnycakes.
Pancakes prevailed as the household bread in homes with no ovens, only an open hearth.
Source: www.world-foodhistory.com/2011/07/history-of-pancakes.html
Picture taken 7/28/23
Intersection of Johnnycake Ridge Rd. and OH-306/Broadmoor Rd.
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
"but Rachel, how are you supposed to have the best summer ever if you don't break all of the rules?" -johnnycakes
<3 this summer was my favorite in years.
Picture taken 09/21/24
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Back to school. It's okay though, this summer still rocked. Hats off for making it happen to Rachel, our camp counselor(lol), johnnycakes, her co-pilot and my best friend, jakey, who you can always count on leaving garbage in your car, and adventure, for allowing us to use it's name for the sake of summer. When asked how I'm supposed to have the best summer ever, I'm gonna look back on this one and say "that's how." stay gold Ponyboy, stay gold.
film
Picture taken 03/28/24
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
I unfortunately didn't have my camera on me, so this isn't the greatest shot. But I will definitely be back with my camera to retake this!
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Picture taken 03/16/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Picture taken 12/13/25
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Picture taken 03/09/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Picture taken 03/09/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Picture taken 03/16/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
By the next time I come around, I think it's safe to say that there will be nothing left standing.
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Picture taken 03/16/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
There are now numerous holes in the upper level of the store, and the front wall for the most part has been removed. More work has been done in the back, with the merchandise pickup and loading docks being completely removed, and the back entrance façade being torn out.
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Picture taken 03/01/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
A few years ago, a real estate developer known for making luxury apartments and condos had purchased the property from Transformco, and at the end of February, fences finally went up. I'm unsure if they're prepping for demolition, gutting the building to reuse it, or it was sold to someone else, but work is being done. All the doors are papered up and theres a bunch of debris in the loading dock.
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Picture taken 03/01/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Picture taken 03/16/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Picture taken 03/09/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
Jigger's Famous RI Johnny Cakes, made from Keyon's Rhode Island Stone Ground Corn Meal. Johnnycake, also called jonnycake, johnny cake, journey cake, shawnee cake and johnny bread, is a cornmeal flatbread or pancake. A staple of New England cuisine, it is often said to have originated in Rhode Island.
Jigger's, Hill and Harbour Diner, at 145 Main Street, was started as a lunch cart in 1917 by Vilgot "Jigger" Lindberg. In 128, Jigger moved the lunch cart and put a diner up in his place. In 1941, Lindberg left the restaurant business and the diner was run by a succession of owners including Leonard "Lenny" Boren and John Avery, who replaced the old diner with the current one, designed by Worcester Dining Car Company in 1950. The diner was closed in 1983 and served as a storage room for an adjacent paint store for early a decade until 1992 when Carol Shriner bought the property and began restoring it. All that remained of the original diner were the clock, the green stools, the woodwork and tiles on the floors & walls. The booths came from the Colonial Diner in Brockton, Mass. Parts of the decorative stainless steel hood were fabricated to match the old photographs of the original interior. Jigger's again closed in 2011, and reopened in 2012 under the ownership of Stephen & Karie Head.
Picture taken 03/08/25
Sears Auto Center (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Set to become a new city fire station, relocating from an older building up the road.
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
March 28
St. Lucia - Day 2
Friday
6:35 PM EDT
Today has been dramatically better than yesterday, though I'm pretty sure it has more to do with us than with St. Lucia. Our hearing is starting to return, if you will. Upon arrival, everything seemed too quiet, like there were empty spaces all around us, where there should have been sound (and fury).
We both got a great night of sleep. Julie fell asleep at about a quarter after 10. I wrote the previous entry until 11:02pm (at least that's what the Date Modified timestamp currently says on the file—again, I'm writing all of this offline at the moment).
I only woke up once at about 5:30 or so, used the bathroom, and returned to bed. I was unsure at the time if I'd be able to recover and re-enter sleep, but I found rather quickly that I could. We *really* need a king-sized bed and better climate control at home...
At about 8am or so, Julie woke me up. It was POURING rain! We fortunately have a nice little covered terrace, and so we made some breakfast (I made sunny-side up eggs with butter, and some turkey bacon. Jules had this sort of muslix type of cereal that she can get in Holland but not in the states, and which we found last night) and sat outside while we watched the rain clear up, the sun come out, the rain return, parts of the sea change to cobalt blue as a patch of sky opened up a league or two out overhead, and finally the sun come out again.
After a bit, we got in a cab. It was raining again. We headed to Castries, the capital, and a nearby port-town where all the big cruise ships are. We walked around the markets where I got yelled at a few times for taking pictures, and then had lunch at a GREAT place called "Sugar and Spice." It was really authentic tasting, with a small counter that fronted a small kitchen. We got the local "must-have" dish: "Green figs (bananas) and Saltfish (some kind of cured fish), as well as a Roasted chicken, with a series of sides. Wow. Was that amazingly good! Thankfully, we hadn't taken the concierge's advice and eaten at "The Caribbean Pirate," which was located in the painfully depressing Duty Free Shopping Mall nearby. This was the local food and atmosphere, drinking a beer and sitting on painted picnic tables, that we were looking for. Yum. After a little more wandering, we decided to walk home. This was a LONG walk, which had I known about in advance, I wouldn't have agreed to. But just before that, we met a really great character: "Dr. Peter." This guy was the classic, old man Rasta-hat, grey dreadlocks, shyster marijuana dealer. Here's some of his dialogue, as Julie pulled out a map to decided how to get home.
"Whatcha looking for, man?"
"I know whatcha looking fo!"
"You know whatcha looking fo, my friend?"
"Because I got it."
"You looking for *marijuana*, my friend!"
"I got it!"
And he did. And he had this patter and dealing down to an art. It was a THING OF BEAUTY to watch, and to be an audience member, as well as participant, in this transaction. The man is an ARTIST, and as he steered us towards our consumer destination, like a mariner with long years of experience, I could only grin in delight as he came over and spoke loudly about the cigars he was offering to sell us, and then in hushed tones tell us the price. What a joy! I wasn't sure it was more than oregano, but I didn't really care, as the exchange was a treat worth paying for. (As it turned out, Dr. Peter wrote out a decent prescription... ahem.)
The walk I will keep short, as it was in itself, rather long. It was punctuated by a rise in temperature, a tightening of my jeans in the heat, a few photographic moments with some great advertisements along the road, and a fight with Julie as we rounded the bend to our villa. We made up shortly after.
Jules took a dip in the Caribbean Sea (because we are on the western side of the island), and I took a dip in the pool. Then we read on some deck chairs. I just started a new Paul Auster novel: "Travels In The Scriptorium," and he wrote a line in there that is such masterful storytelling that I'm tempted to get it and quote it right here.
"Far off in the distance, beyond the room, beyond the building in which the room is located, he hears the faint cry of a bird—perhaps a crow, perhaps a seagull, he can't tell which."
My goodness, what a sentence! I thought when I read it. Not only does it create a scene you are forced to place yourself in, to hear the shrill shriek of that mysterious fowl, and to demonstrate tone, but it hides exposition about the location—the description of how quiet the room and its environs must be—in an incredibly organic way. My love of the sentence may also have in some part been due to Dr. Peter. Or as the Beatles would call him, Dr. Roberts.
Anyway, I read and then listened to a really interesting episode of This American Life for almost an hour. I had another beer, this time Red Stripe (we bought a six-pack at the market yesterday). And Jules and I took a half-hour walk down the beach just before sunset.
...Excuse me, I have to go now and get ready to head out for the Fish Fry in Anse La Rey. I will returned momentarily!
OK, we're back! And it was FANTASTIC. It reminded Julie of the food section of the Night Market in Taipei, except much, much lower end. Apparently Anse La Rey is a very poor town. The stalls of food lined a single street, but it had a lot of energy, one large stereo system blasting, and a lot of tourists and locals milling about. As it got later, it got more crowded. We had garlic shrimp, roasted crab (which was really more of a crabmeat stuffing placed in a shell) from one vendor. Then pan-fried snapper and these things called "Johnny cakes" elsewhere, but here they are "Roast Bake" or "Fried Bake." Essentially round, dense bread pan baked (or deep fried). We had a roast bake. It went *unbelievably well with the butter-garlic sauce that I was carrying around with me after the first vendor for just this occasion). And finally, we had a fried soy pastry and this amazing dessert called a "Turnover." It was coconut minced with honey crammed into the middle of a semi-sweet break pastry. I almost passed out from the goodness. And all this was basically cooked in pots and pans on charcoal grills in the street. As we waited for our pick-up, I bought two more Johnnycakes for tomorrow, and ate a third. It was still piping hot from the grill. It was a very good food day! A really good day in general, as a matter of fact.
We met Kendrick, our taxi driver, for the half-hour ride back. He had given us some good advice before eating, which was to ask the prices of everything first, because some of the seafood dishes were evidently very expensive. In any case, we told him about the Ice Hotel last year, and how this year it was Julie's turn to surprise me with a trip, we talked about New York, and the last time he was there was in 1988, and how it's much safer now, though just as cold in the winter.
And now we're home. And I'm still unable to upload these entries. But I'm writing them!
"Happiness Is A
Warm Gun," but really it is
A warm Johnnycake.
Introducing the McRogue : @mainegrains Cornmeal & @cabotcheese Cheddar Johnny Cake Buns | @gastros401 Breakfast Sausage | @sidwainer Arugula | @littlerhodyfoods Eggs | Maple Habanero Drip 💧 ~ Warning this is highly addicting & might lead to excessive brunchin’ • • • • #foodart #foodgasm #foodstylist #foodheaven #gansett #rhodeisland #foodie #foodies #brunch #lunch #dinner #foodphotography #foodgasm #foodpassion #eggs #johnnycake #ri #401 #401eats #providence #bonappetit #foodandwine #thrillist #eater #yelp #plate #breakfast
This was the attic room of the Borden's maid Bridget Sullivan.
Bridget Sullivan was born one of 13 children to Eugene and Margaret (Leary) Sullivan in Cork County Ireland in 1864. She emigrated to the U.S. in 1883 and worked as a scullery maid in Newport, Rhode Island. By 1888 she had made her way to Fall River where she found work with the Borden's in 1889. Her major duties were cooking, cleaning and ironing. All of which she did on the morning of the murders.
On the witness stand at Lizzie's trial, Bridget told in detail, all of the events she witnessed on the day of the murders. Much of what we know today comes from her statements including the now infamous breakfast of johnnycakes, coffee, fruit, cookies and three-day old mutton broth.
A dining fiasco...
Fiasco: noun
1. An Italian squat, round-bottomed, straw-covered bottle, usually containing wine from the Chianti region
2. A mishap in which the normal realm of human error, fumble, mishap and mistake gives way to a complete breakdown of order
My experience at the Wickford Diner was a complete fiasco (in the second sense above), but the resulting comedy of errors was so entertaining that I just had to tell other people about it. This isn't really a complaint, since in the end the humor of the situation greatly outweighed any of the inconvenience.
This Memorial Day, I found myself in Wickford, RI, immediately before the morning's Memorial Day Parade. Carol and I were hungry for a little breakfast (our earlier efforts at Allie's Donuts failed, due to Allie's being closed for the holiday), but the Wickford Diner was open.
I've been to the Wickford Diner several times before in the last umpteen years (previously in 2001, 1996, and probably sometime before that), with pleasant memories of the basic staples of RI cuisine: johnnycakes and chowder.
The Wickford Diner has had a number of changes from my early visits: the place has been heavily renovated, and now includes a large seating area from the adjacent building. The menu has been simplified to basic breakfast fare (I no longer could find corncakes on the menu, for example). But the overall environment looked nice and the smells emanating from the kitchen were pleasant. So we took a seat and decided to give it a try.
It quickly became obvious that something wasn't quite right that morning, since several minutes passed before we got menus and drink orders. Several other tables were still obviously awaiting either menus or food, and several other tables weren't bussed. After a few minutes of observation, it became obvious why: only two people were working the restaurant (one waiting, one cooking).
Our suspicions were confirmed when several minutes later, the waiter rushed over with menus, and apologetically explained that normally there would be several more people working there, but that two had quit in the last 24 hours, and he himself had been on the job for only a few weeks. He then quickly took our orders, apologized again, rushed the order to the kitchen, and started another quick round of the patrons to try and get caught up with orders, bills, coffee, waiting, and busing.
Unfortunately, due to the Memorial Day parade starting in an hour, there were a lot more people coming into the Diner than normal for a Monday morning, and you could see the already-existing backlog of work getting worse.
Like the famous Lucy skit in which she's decorating and boxing cakes coming off the assembly line, you could see the breakdown coming: People could no longer find clean tables at which to sit. The waiter was running out of menus since everyone still had their menus while waiting to order. The kitchen was backing up since the single waiter couldn't deliver the food to the tables quickly enough. The coffee was running out, and a series of empty OJ bottles was building up at the waiter's station. Nobody was getting their bills settled since the waiter was busy with the above. Oh, and the register was out of small bills anyways.
Now, I've seen enough well-run restaurants to know that an experienced staff probably could've kept the place running decently with just two people, but this waiter in particular just wasn't experienced enough (I'm not faulting him, he was new there, and obviously trying his best.)
The funny thing is, everyone seemed to be in a pretty good mood about it. It was a holiday, everyone was in a basically good mood, and wanted things to work out. That, and due to traffic being blocked off, none of us were going anywhere until after the parade, anyways, so we might as well make the best of things.
So, as the situation in the kitchen became more and more dire, it was actually kind of entertaining to watch events collapse on themselves. To borrow a phrase from theater, the Fourth Wall was broken, and people all of a sudden decided that a successful breakfast was going to require everyone to break their roles. One woman starting busing tables. Another woman started topping off coffee. I found the coffee cups, started delivering coffee to people still waiting for their coffee, and made a new pot (I didn't find the cream, so another woman was happily shuttling the one filled cream pitcher between tables). The cook emerged from the kitchen and started delivering food to tables. People dug into their pockets for some small change to break the bills in the register. An informal rule was instituted: if you help yourself to a refill on coffee, you have to offer to top off everyone else.
Still, it was obvious that the situation was dire, and that without intervention, it was just going to continue spiraling downhill. The cook and waiter decided that it was important not to give people a bad experience, so they made the decision to do a strategic retreat and regroup: they closed the door. No further breakfast would be served, the existing tables would get taken care of (they comped everyone, but I'm pretty sure everyone left a reasonable amount of money (in small bills... :) ) anyways), and they'd use the next 45 minutes (until the end of the parade) to regroup for lunch. My last view of the diner was seeing the cook standing on the roof (no, I didn't have to talk him down, he was just getting a breather and watching the parade).
I wish I could've hung out to see how lunch went, I really want to know if they managed to get their game on and closed out the day without any more fiascos. I hope neither the cook nor the waiter got in trouble for this, since they were seriously giving their best, but it was just overwhelming them in a way I've rarely seen a place get overwhelmed.
I also have to wonder where the owner and/or manager were, since in the end, it's their responsibility. If the staffing issue couldn't get addressed in time, it might've been better to give everyone the day off and not have customers exposed to the comedy of errors that this became.
In the end, I don't have many complaints. My breakfast was decent (my homefries and Carol's french toast were very good, although the pancakes were just run-of-the-mill), it ended up not costing us much, and we were thoroughly entertained.
Picture taken 03/09/26
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
9/8/2011
i didn't understand how my bike got so dirty just sitting in the garage until i realized the storm blew out a window pane. obviously, the bike wash took priority.
Picture taken 06/02/25
Sears (closed) | 7875 Johnnycake Ridge Rd, Mentor, OH
Please contact me via FlickrMail, or on Gmail if you'd like to use any of my photographs.
retaimings@gmail.com
I was watching True Grit this afternoon, and Rooster Cogburn kept eating these little cakes out of a satchel that he called "corn dodgers". I was curious, so I looked them up, and found the history and recipe below on this site, and made them. They're actually pretty tasty. Even Mattie Ross might like these.
"Abraham Lincoln was raised on these little oval cornmeal cakes, George Washington Carver took them to school, and John Wayne used them for target practice in the movie True Grit.
Dating back to the 1800s, the first corn dodgers were made from "hot water corn bread," a mixture of cornmeal, pork fat, salt, and boiling water that was formed into small oblong loaves and baked. Similar recipes were given different names depending on how the dough was shaped and cooked. Corn pone have the same oblong shape as dodgers, but are pan-fried in lots of oil. Johnnycakes are flattened into small pancakes, then griddle-fried. Ashcakes are rounds of dough wrapped in cabbage leaves, then placed in the ashes of the campfire to cook. Hoecakes are formed into small pancakes, then placed on the flat side of a garden hoe (really!) and cooked over the campfire.
* 2 tablespoons corn or vegetable oil
* 2 cups yellow cornmeal
* 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups water
* 1 cup buttermilk
* 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 large egg
1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Brush 1 tablespoon of the oil on a rimmed baking sheet.
2. Whisk the cornmeal, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Combine the water, buttermilk, and butter in a large saucepan. In a slow, steady stream whisk the cornmeal mixture into the liquid. Cook the mixture over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until the water is absorbed and the mixture is very thick, about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool until warm, about 10 minutes. Whisk the baking powder and egg in a small bowl, then stir into the cornmeal mixture.
3. Fill a medium bowl with tap water. Scoop out a generous 2 tablespoons of the mixture and, using wet hands, form into a 4 by 1-1/2-inch loaf shape. Place on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with the remaining mixture, spacing the dodgers about 1/2 inch apart. Brush with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Bake until deep brown on the bottom and golden brown on top, rotating the pan halfway through baking, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the corn dodgers to a rack to cool slightly. Serve warm. (The corn dodgers can be refrigerated for up to 2 days; reheat on a baking sheet in a 350-degree oven.)
Notes from the Test Kitchen: Most 19th-century recipe we tried yielded corn dodgers that were dense, gritty, and hard as a brick. Starting with the base recipe of cornmeal, salt, butter, and hot water, we added a bit of sugar (just 1-1/2 tablespoons) to bring out the cornmeal's sweet side. Replacing some of the water with buttermilk gave the dodgers a tangy flavor that tasters loved. Baking soda (which reacts with the buttermilk) and baking powder helped to lighten the dodgers considerably, and a single egg provided richness and gave the dodgers a creamy interior."
Soaked, boiled and ready saltfish.
Want the recipe? Get the only West Indian cookbook you'll ever need: The Naparima Girls’ High School Cookbook