The next stop in my travels was Lake George, NY, in the Adirondacks, for our annual visit with our Tiki friends at Ohana Luau at the Lake, staying at The Tiki Resort, one of the few remaining intact Tiki-style resorts in the US. While most of our activity focused on either the Ohana event, or several trips for mini-golfing to some of the many nearby courses, we do occasionally find ourselves venturing forth looking for breakfast. You can see from such previous reviews of The Lone Bull and Biscotti Bros. that the Lake George area has an almost uncountably large number of places that serve up breakfast fare in restaurants featuring some combination of “lumberjack” and “north woods” themes; while we previously have enjoyed The Lone Bull a couple of times, when we head that some of our friends were heated to Flapjack Pete’s, we decided we’d check them out, since they seemed to be one of the better in-town options.
Flapjack Pete’s leans into the Adirondack theme pretty heavily, with a log cabin sitting right at the corner of Canada Street and Lake Shore Drive at the north end of downtown Lake George. Flapjack Pete’s is a breakfast-only joint, but I’m wondering if that’s always been the case, since the signage here is a bit ponderous: the location is signed both “Tamarack Inn” and “Flapjack Pete’s”, but you’ll find reviews online for both, even though it’s just the one business. But that oddity aside, it’s a pretty spacious place that also has the rarity for Lake George of at least some off-street parking, and at our Friday 9am visit, we were quickly seated (note that we did call ahead, about 30 minutes before leaving the Tiki resort).
Interior-wise, Flapjack Pete’s is quite a scene: it’s got a heavily-decorated “north woods” decor nailed: natural carved wood tables, log walls, the occasional mounted antlers, bait signs, snowshoes, and even a large wooden canoe that pretty much leans into the Adirondack theme throughout. Our party was quite large, so we ended up getting split into two groups, a group of six at in one dining room at a large table cut from a single log, with the remainder in the other dining room. It’s definitely a pleasant space, and we were quickly served our beverage choices as we perused the menu, and the daily specials on the board.
The menu at Flapjack Pete’s is pretty straight forward. With “Flapjack” right in the name, you can guess that one half of the entire menu is basically dedicated to pancakes (both full-sized “griddle cakes” and smaller silver dollar pancakes), waffles, and French toast. The other is dedicated to eggs, omelets (with a pretty impressive list of toppings) and sides, and then there’s the “Collosal Breakfast” spanning both, with two pancakes, two eggs, two sausage or strips of bacon, and home fries. There’s also a daily special board, and that’s where I saw what I was craving: apple cinnamon pancakes. I ended up doing a full order of the apple cinnamon griddle cakes.
I’ve long liked a good apple cinnamon pancake, and miss the days when the long-shuttered Dana’s in Quechee served up some excellent ones… but the ones here didn’t disappoint. These were solid performers: a nice batter with just the right amount of rise to it, a really good sear with some butter on both sides, a fair bit of grated apple, and just enough cinnamon to give it a nice spicy note without overpowering it. Some real maple syrup, and we were off to the races.
The rest of my party either got flapjack dishes like I did, or opted for the omelets, and everyone was quite pleased. I’m definitely going to work them into our Lake George rotation, especially if they can continue to do some great specials like the apple cinnamon pancakes. One big caveat for those looking to go to Flapjack Pete’s: Show up early. On weekends in particular, the place gets extremely busy, and wait times long. If you can’t get on the waitlist, consider trying one of the other spots in town.
