"Each year for more than a decade, we have embarked on a dyspepsia-inducing quest for the finest flapjacks in town." So goes the first sentence of this year's Flapjack Flip-Off XI, which pretty much sums up the story thus far. This season we surveyed seven plates of pancakes and contributed our annual conclusions. Here are the findings, expressed through photos.
First & First Southern Baking Company took our Last & Last Award for its blackened cornmeal-blueberry cake. Regular blueberry pancakes would have been fine if cooked through.
Jackson Soul Food copped the Pancakes Without Soul Award for a trio of pale, flavorless, no frills/no thrills flapjacks.
Jerry's Famous Deli's stack of solid, no-nonsense griddlecakes were only good enough to earn the Not Famous For Its Pancakes Award.
Sweet Point Bakery & Cafe came up strong with thin, steamy flapjacks imbued with sweet flavor -- and therefore was bestowed with the Sweet and Pointedly Thin Award.
Michael's Genuine Food & Drink was given the Genuinely Cold Award for a chilly but otherwise delicious baked 9-grain pancake with creamery butter and rich, organic maple syrup.
Tudor House Restaurant was honored with the Mrs.B Nothing-to-Be-Ashamed-of Runner Up Award for luscious lemon ricotta pancakes.
City Hall Restaurant was proudly presented the Mrs. Beeton Flapjack Flip-Off Trophy* for a piping-hot pile of vanilla-infused pancakes almost crêpe-like in tenderness. With pecan butter and real maple syrup on top, these jacks just couldn't be beat.
*Mrs. Beeton is our patron saint for her printed assertion 102 years ago that pancakes "must be regarded as somewhat beyond the capabilities of average digestive organs."
Tune in next year for Flapjack Flip-Off XII: Flips Ahoy! The Chocolate Chip Smackdown.
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