review of flapjack willy's

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P r s r t . S t d

U . S .

P o s t a g e

P A I D

W o r c e s t e r , M A

P e r m i t N o . 2

T HE C HRONICLE OF S TURBRIDGE C OUNTRY L IVING STURBRIDGETIMES

THE

MAGAZINE

A UGUST , 2011



12 T HE C HRONICLE OF S TURBRIDGE C OUNTRY L IVING THE STURBRIDGETIMESMAGAZINE

FINDING FLAPJACK WILLIE’S

WAS AN ACCIDENT. It is not on

the Main Street, but on the residential

side road that starts at the east side of

the Quabaug Rubber plant up in

North Brookfield. I passed by it a sev-

eral times before realizing it was not

part of the variety store next door.

Then again, if you’re not looking for

something, it might take a while to

find it.

Find it we did, however. When I fi-

nally looked at the sign, it was the

name that caught my eye. Maybe I

would not have been tempted if it had

just been, Larry’s Lunch. Then again, though, I’d heard of f lapjacks all my

life, I’d never actually had one.The first thing you notice on walk-

ing through the door is the décor. It

can only be described as retro. It is

neat and clean but has none of the glitz

of chain restaurants. Though they

serve a good cup of java, as we found

out soon enough, there is none of the

Starbucks style coffee shop culture. It

is an old style American breakfast andlunch spot with counter or

table service.

My daughter,

Bríd, and I came

in late morning

looking for some

breakfast. The wait-

ress asked us if we wanted

a menu or wished to choose from the

many specials posted on the wall. She

didn’t say like a townie, but she could

probably tell, we weren’t. We asked for

coffee and menus. She quickly

brought both, and the bottomless cup

was refilled as needed.

Pancakes are at the top of the menu

and I went no further than to request

one large blueberry instead of a stack.

Along with that, I had a side of TexMex home fries. My daughter or-

dered the sweet potato pancake.

The blueberry pancake was large

and tasted fine with the syrup. The

TexMex fries were spicy. The hit of the morning was the sweet potato

pancake. The waitress thought it too

small and brought out another one.

We were happily surprised when we

saw the check. It was more than fair.

In our next foray, I stayed with

breakfast and Bríd did lunch. She or-

dered the fried scallops with French

fries and was pleased. It was time forme to be able to claim I had

a flapjack at least once

in this life.

Willie’s flapjacks

are with filling

cooked into the

buttermilk pan-

cake. The choices are

ham, bacon or sausage, with a cheese

filling as well. If you are really hun-

gry, the Meat Lovers Flapjack has all

three pork products in the dish with

the cheese. It would only be fair to

try that. Yes, it was a bit overboard,

but with the syrup liberally applied,

the pangs of hunger were absent for

the rest of the day.

I had not yet had lunch with

Willie, so on our next visit, I ordereda wall special, the Italian Meat Loaf.

It was stuffed with potato and cheese

and topped with sauce. In truth, I

William Holmberg, proprietor of Flapjack Willy’s in North Brookfield.

© 2011 SturbridgeTimes photo by R ichard Murphy

Flap jack Willy’sBreakfast at

Yep, them’s good pancakes ...

S OMETHING D IFFERENT

B Y R ICHARD MURPHY , S.I.G.*



13T HE C HRONICLE OF S TURBRIDGE C OUNTRY L IVING THE STURBRIDGETIMESMAGAZINE

did not get the potato part being associ-

ated with Italy. Other than gnocchi,

how many other Italian dishes have

spuds? No matter, there was culinary li-

cense at work. It went even better when

the chef handed me a bottle of Tabasco

to go with it.My daughter reverted to breakfast and

had sourdough French toast with choco-

late chips. Excessive maybe, but I am the

last one to complain.

Flapjack Willie’s is not an emporium

of haute cuisine. Not that the epony-

mous Willy isn’t capable of such work.

William Holmberg is originally from

Worcester, but has kicked around a bit

to get back to the region. Years ago, after

a hippie phase, he learned to be a chef

at Lake Tahoe. He trained under some

of the country’s highest paid chefs and

fed a lot of people. It was there that he

learned that in making a 60-gallon batch

of soup, “a half teaspoon of caraway

could make all the difference.”

He came back to run restaurant in

Gilbertville, but abruptly left it to travelthe world for 20 years. His job was not

in the kitchen. No, Willy worked teach-

ing the Internet until the whole planet

learned it. Back to Massachusetts, he is

the only chef and is in the kitchen seven

days a week at FlapJacks.

What Willy purveys is not for the di-

eters amongst us. Then again, a couple

of leaves of lettuce would never be re-garded as comfort food. Above the

counter are pictures of diners who have

been awarded a sticker recognizing their

love of breakfast. If you eat the Big Guy

Special, consisting of two large pancakes,

bacon, ham and sausage, home fries,

three eggs and toast, you too can be im-

mortalized with the sticker that reads, “I

ate the whole durn thing.” If you fail,

one of the waitresses, either Kim or

Karen, will happily pack it up to take

home. Either way, you can leave feeling

fulfilled.

Flapjack Willy’s is at 37 Grove Street

in North Brookfield and is open seven

days a week from 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

You can catch up with them on face-

book.

* The editor and publisher of The Stur-

bridge Times Magazine awarded me the

title “Sage International Gourmand” with-

out ceremony or emolument in the Octo-

ber, 2010 issue.

Morning morsels# Breakfast tells your body to break the

fast and get going for the day. It gives

you energy and revs up your brain.

# Kellogg’s was the first company to usetelevision advertising as its primary

mode of advertising.

# One third of American adults will have

bacon and egg for weekend breakfast.

# Cereal was invented when colonial

housewives served popcorn with

sugar and cream for breakfast.

# Instant coffee has existed since the

middle of the 18th century.

# The first breakfast cereal was created

in 1863 in New York by a vegetarian.

# Cheerio’s is the number 1 breakfast

cereal purchased in the U.S.

# In Burma, a traditional breakfast is

fried rice with boiled peas. An alterna-

tive is steamed banana leaf with peas,

served with a sprinkle of crushed and

salted toasted sesame.

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