Los Banos Rotary Pancake Breakfast returns Sept. 16 as part of chamber’s Downtown Fair

The Los Banos Rotary Pancake Breakfast, a tradition for decades before COVID intervened, will return next month, on Saturday, Sept. 16, as part of the Los Banos Chamber of Commerce Downtown Street Fair. Since the 1980s local Rotarians have been flipping tasty flapjacks, primarily at the street fairs. But after the last pancake breakfast in September 2019, COVID shut down the breakfast, the street fair and just about everything else. Many people have been asking when the Rotary breakfast would return. This year, under the leadership of 2023-24 club president Tanya Price, the club’s answer is, “Now!” The breakfast returns to the Miller & Lux Building, the home for Rotary breakfasts for many years, on Sixth Street at the north end of downtown, between I and H Streets. Rotarians, with the help of Interact Club high school students from both Los Banos and Pacheco High Schools, will be serving from 8 to 11:30 a.m. pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee, juice and milk. Tickets are $10 and $5 for children under six. Tickets are now available from every Rotarian or by calling ticket chairman Gene Lieb at 209.704.3831. Tickets are also available online at https://los-banos-rotary. square.site/. Tickets can also be purchased at the door. All proceeds go to supporting Los Banos’ 2024 Sober Graduation Night. Once again, the main man at the griddle will be longtime Rotarian Tony Whitehurst, who has worked at Rotary pancake breakfasts for more than 40 years. According to other Rotarians, Whitehurst has a secret recipe and method whereby every flapjack turns out fluffy and tasty. The Rotary club’s pancake breakfast committee is already working to make sure the breakfast is successful, including Price, Whitehurst, Lieb, Mike Neu, Brian Rocha and John Cates. “We are happy to be bringing the breakfast back,” said Price, “as a part of the downtown street fair, and we are determined to make it efficient and enjoyable for everyone.