Flapjacks Selling Like Hotcakes at Cafe

When sap oozes from the maple trees in springtime, the Cartwrights give their dairy a breather and grease the griddle.

The family’s Maple Tree Inn is unshuttered and the tables are wiped down for an all-too-brief pancake season. On a busy day, the line of pancake-craving customers may extend out the door and more than 100 feet down to the road.

Inside, steam rises from the grill where flapjacks are poured and flipped, 27 at a time. Hamburgers and sandwiches are also on the menu, but pancakes--made from a secret recipe and served any time of day with maple syrup from 5,000 trees on the Cartwright land--are the first order of business.

Ten months of the year, Ronald and Virginia Cartwright run their 1,700-acre dairy farm nine miles north of Angelica. But when the maple sap runs, from mid-February until mid-April, the inn gets going again.

Aside from the dark-golden buckwheat pancakes (all you can eat for $4) they also serve maple milkshakes and sundaes.

An average of 500 customers show up each day, Cartwright said, and many of them drive more than an hour, from Rochester or Buffalo, 50 miles to the north.

The restaurant seated just 15 people when it opened in 1963, but has since been expanded to a capacity of 190 in two pine-paneled dining rooms.

“This is my third trip this year, and there’ll be five or six more,” said Van E. Deschler, a retired dairy farmer from Portville, 40 miles to the south.

“We came last year, and we’re back this year because it was so good,” said Joanne Scherrer, who drove nearly two hours from Niagara Falls with her husband.

The Cartwright family has been making maple syrup since the 1850s, and it’s still a family affair.

Ronald Cartwright, 65, makes about 1,000 gallons of syrup in the basement each season. His son, LaVergne, helps run the farm and the restaurant. Daughter Rhonda takes leave from a job in Corning each spring to unlimber her flapjack-flipping skills.