Cyndy’s House of Pancakes will be reopening soon, but the long-term future of the restaurant remains almost as murky as a cup of dark coffee.
Businessman Bob Davis had hoped to purchase Cyndy’s and convert it to a strip club. Davis entered a purchase agreement with Cyndy’s longtime owner Gae Bowman, but the deal fell through due to Davis’s difficulties obtaining permits and financing for the project.
On September 1 the City of Seattle dealt another blow to Davis’s plans. The City declined to issue permits needed to convert the property to a strip club. Davis is expected to appeal. In the meantime, the Bowman family is preparing to reopen Cyndy’s House of Pancakes in the next two weeks, but they are also keeping the property on the market.
Cyndy's House of Pancakes has been at the corner of Aurora & 105th since 1972.
Community groups and neighborhood residents oppose the strip club. They worry that a strip club could harm the character of the neighborhood and serve as a magnet for crime. Bob Davis angered many residents when he told the Seattle Times, “It’s not like I’m going to be running down the neighborhood” and implied that the area was already run down. “It’s not like it’s Laurelhurst,” said Davis.
Locals took exception. One letter to City officials noted, “Bob Davis thinks that since it’s Aurora a strip club is all right, but times have changed.” Another letter elaborated, “Twenty years ago the area near Aurora was widely considered to be a ‘seedy’ part of Seattle. But many young couples and families with children have recently moved in, the character of the neighborhood has changed, and the crime rate has declined. People don’t want the ‘bad old days’ to come back.” One concerned resident wrote, “It may not be Laurelhurst, but every area deserves equal treatment.”
Opponents also claimed that Davis’s plans violated Seattle land-use laws. City zoning laws contain “dispersion requirements” that prohibit the creation or expansion of “adult cabarets” located within 800 feet of “any community center, child care center, school, . . . or public parks.” The Northgate Christian Academy, a private school located at 10504 Stone Ave. N, is 742 feet east of the Cyndy’s property.
The City agreed with the community groups. In its September 1 letter to Bob Davis, the Seattle Department of Planning and Development said the project could not receive permits because it was too close to a “child care facility” and thus “did not meet the dispersion standard.”
“Obviously, we’re relieved and pleased,” said one neighborhood activist in response to the City’s ruling. “There were some technical issues where we disagreed with the City. We would have liked to see a stronger ruling, but we’ll definitely take it.”
The City’s ruling is probably not the final chapter of this story. “We fully expect that Bob Davis will appeal; he has a history of suing the City,” said a nearby resident. “We may have won this round, but we know that Davis is going to get back in the ring. It’s not over.”
Cyndy's trinity of syrups--maple, pineapple, and raspberry.
But there is good news for pancake-lovers on the horizon. Cyndy’s House of Pancakes will open its doors again soon. The Bowman family hopes to re-open Cyndy’s as soon as Saturday September 11 and certainly by the middle of this month.
Kitchen manager Mike said, “There may be some changes, but it will still be a great place for breakfast and lunch.” Many of the old staff will be back, but there will also be some new faces. Pancakes will still be a mainstay, but there might also be a few new items on the menu.
“Of course we’ll still have the dutch babies and chicken fried steak. Those are classics! We wouldn’t change a thing about those,” Mike reassured me. And that is good news indeed for fans of the House of Pancakes.
But the Cyndy’s property does remain for sale. Gae Bowman has run Cyndy’s House of Pancakes for over four decades, and the restaurant has been at its current location since 1972. Three years ago, Bowman broke her hip, and she’s now looking to retire. She put the property up for sale in late 2008.
Negotiations between Bowman and Davis have been ongoing for months. Davis first announced his intention to buy the property in December 2008, and a sale appeared imminent in January but the deal fell apart. Davis applied for permits in May, but was rebuffed by the City because his application was incomplete. After these hitches, it looked like the sale was back on the menu in early August. Cyndy’s closed its doors on August 10, and Davis filed a new permit request on August 18. He sought to add seating, build a stage, and convert the property to a strip club. Now that the City has denied those requests, he will have until September 22 to file an appeal.
Cyndy's signature red booths. Is this why Bob Davis thought the place would make a good strip club?
In an unexpected twist, city planners also found that Davis’s project violated another dispersion requirement--the requirement that a new adult cabaret can’t be within 600 feet of an existing one. In 1987, the Liberty Bookstore at 10338 Aurora Ave. N, now known for its “Dancing Bears” sign, applied for a permit for “what would now be called an adult cabaret.” After a lengthy appeal process, this permit was granted in 1989. Accounts differ, but it appears that the owners either had strippers for only a couple of months or never did open an adult cabaret. In any event, there have been no “dancing bares” here since 1990.
The City ruled that the actual use of the property was irrelevant. The fact that the permit was still on the books was what mattered. According to planners, “the authorized use for a portion of the building at 10338 Avenue North remains an adult cabaret. From a zoning standpoint, the owners of that property could lawfully resume operation as an adult cabaret without obtaining additional approvals.” This ruling puts a second obstacle in Davis’s path.
Bob Davis has, however, done well in his previous battles with the City. The former owner of Giggles Comedy Club and the Urban Comedy Cafe, Davis sought in 2005 to turn from comedy clubs to strip clubs. He sued the City of Seattle, claiming that its moratorium on new strip clubs was a violation of the First Amendment. He won and garnered a $500,000 settlement. A similar suit against the City of Bothell later in 2005 earned him $350,000.
While the Bowman family would like to a buyer who would keep the place as a restaurant, Davis has been the only one to meet the asking price.
Although the long-term future of Cyndy’s remains unclear, breakfast fans are delighted to learn that the place will be reopening. One loyal patron reported, “I heard that they were going to be open for at least several months. The way it’s going, it could be a couple years. A couple more years of chicken fried steak. Mmm.”
Folks interested in the future of Cyndy’s House of Pancakes can send an e-mail to savecyndys@gmail.com to receive updates.
