The building at 2101 Broadway that houses Pancake Circus has anchored the corner since 1960. But it wasn't always called Pancake Circus and the lot wasn't always a restaurant.
Pancake Circus. Photo: Morgan Ong.
Like so much of land use on Broadway in mid-20th Century, the corner at 21st Street was a car lot. In the 1930s, there was a gas station at 2109 and House of Brakes at 2123. In the 1940s, there was P.F. Wingate Radiator Repair at 2105; Broadway Auto Supplies and A. B. Cherry Tires at 2109; and in the 1960s Franklin Auto Sales at 2121.
From 1952 to 1960 Nahas Motor Sales anchored 21st and Broadway selling used cars. The city directory doesn’t list a business here for the years 1959 or 1960. Today’s Pancake Circus floor supervisor Lulu Gonsalves and manager Terri Mead recall a building was under construction at the car lot. Terri was a child in Curtis Park and remembers walking in the area and wondering if the new structure was going to be a restaurant.
In 1961, a restaurant indeed opened. It was called Al & Bud’s Platter, and it was owned by Al Nahas (the same name that owned the car lot) and Hollis K. “Bud” Sheely. The restaurant’s name was a hint that the plates would be huge. Food was served on platters the size you’d use to serve a turkey on.
In 1962, Al’s wife Myrle joined the business and Sheely was out. The restaurant became Al & Myrle’s Platter. Myrle Nahas also owned Myrle’s Trail Restaurant cater-corner to Pancake Circus (2530 21st Street a half-block south of Broadway) at a time when swimming actress Esther Williams also had an interest in Trails, as it’s called now. In 1965, the restaurant name was shortened to Al’s Platter.
By 1970, the Nahases were out and Bud Sheely was back in. He renamed the restaurant Pancake Parade. Sheely and his wife Josephine in the early sixties had begun Pancake Parades elsewhere, but it wasn’t until 1968 than the city directory lists a Pancake Parade at 1001 30th.
In 1970, Louis A. and Ruth Shuhr bought Pancake Parade and quickly changed the name to Pancake Circus. Shuhr often joked that it was easier to change half a neon sign than a whole one. It’s been Pancake Circus ever since. Today, Louie Shuhr lives in Wilton.
Until 1975, the address for Pancake Circus appears as 2423 21st Street. After years on a busy corner, it made more sense to highlight a positioning on Broadway rather than make customers figure out that the cross street at 21st was Broadway.
Nearly eight years ago, Mumbai-born Naren Muni, who has lived in the US for 35 years with a career in engineering, bought Pancake Circus, leaving the menu, clowns, circus décor, the cooks and floor staff intact.