Polo 24-hour Bar, in Bishopsgate, central London is serving pancakes for 24-hours. It has opened a special pancake hatch so customers can also get pancakes to take away and be delivered.
The 2022 pancake week menu includes a CBD pancake stack complete with lashings of CBD infused crème, smoked marshmallows, dark chocolate sauce and munchies. There’s also a popcorn, salted caramel and ice cream stack, as well as sticky toffee pudding pancakes.
A vegan peanut butter and jam stack is also available, and there’s something to satisfy savoury-lovers with the English breakfast stack, which is described on the menu as “Breakfast, but better!’.
The bar hosts the Pancake Challenge, where, if a guest can eat all 12 pancakes in under 15 minutes, they are awarded the £30 meal for free plus a bonus bottle of Prosecco.
Community cause
The fine-dining pub the Cowper Arms in Digswell, Hertfordshire is hosting ‘Pancakes for the Community’, where all proceeds from pancakes sold will be donated to local causes.
Guests can decorate their pancakes with toppings from the pancake bar. The pub is also serving savoury pancake-based dishes, including mushroom soup with strips of pancake, ratatouille rolled in pancakes “Cannelloni” style, and beef lasagne with pancakes.
Cowper Arms staff member Dan Vine said: “It was originally something that Father Rob was doing at the local church just down the road from us, but as it grew busier it needed more space and a bigger kitchen to run it, so Rob got chatting to us and we’ve hosted it here the since 2019.
“We charge just £1 per pancake and all the money raised is given to local parish schools, so we get visits from all the local schools, and Brownies, Scouts as well as our locals who drop a bit of money into the pot for a pancake while they have a drink.
“In 2019 we made around 600 pancakes. By the time Lent starts I’m happy not to look at another tub of Nutella or jam until Easter! But it’s a great day every year. It’s one of the few days of the year, along with Christmas Eve and Mother’s Day, that you get all of the village passing through the pub on the same day.”
Family fun
What’s more, Three Cheers Pub Company venues the Bolingbroke in Battersea, south London, and the Rosendale in Dulwich, south London, are hosting build-your-own-pancake sessions, where kids can decorate pancake towers while adults sit back and relax.
According to a Three Cheers spokesperson, this builds on the popularity of the fairy cakes that can be decorated at the pubs, which are loved by kids and parents alike.
Some pubs are introducing new dishes for the occasion: South-London-based pub the Bedford, Balham, is introducing banoffee pie pancakes for the holiday, and the Old Quarter pub in Limerick, Ireland, will serve pancakes with classic topping such as lemon and sugar, and bacon with maple syrup, all day.