60 Flippin’ Years: Uncle Bill’s Pancake House Has Been a Family Business for Three Generations
Still lovin’ pancakes after 60 years (from left): Bill, Tiffany, Casey and Debbie O’Hara
What’s in a pancake?
For three generations of the O’Hara family, it’s the vehicle for a business journey launched in Stone Harbor.
It’s a trip that marks six decades, expanding to Avalon, Ocean City, North Cape May, Cape May and Wildwood.
Area residents boil it down to four words: Uncle Bill’s Pancake House.
The Seven Mile landmark celebrates 60 years of business in 2022, serving patrons who may once have eaten their first pancake here. Those customers now bring their grandchildren to Uncle Bill’s.
For many visitors, this establishment is as tethered to their local memories as the beach, the ocean, the shops, and summer vacations.
“Our parents and grandparents built something great and it’s been important for people in our family to keep it going,” says Casey O’Hara, a third-generation owner. “It was a natural fit for us growing up and I feel that we all enjoy it now, too.”
That’s no small feat for an establishment predating the internet and the tentacles of social media.
Word-of-mouth advertising has been strong for a business that is well-named.
Uncle Bill’s serves up thousands of pancakes per day in the summer. Breakfast is served all day with more than 15 types of pancakes, waffles, French toast, fabulous omelets, farm fresh eggs and meats. Several locations also serve lunch and dinner.
Additional razzle dazzle:
There is a menu item of pork roll, eggs and pancakes. And Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Pancakes.
One can find Peanut Butter Pancakes. Or ham, scrambled eggs, and pancakes.
The list of pancake combinations and the overall menu are extensive.
The Stone Harbor location at 304 96th St. is seasonal, as are Uncle Bill’s in Wildwood, Cape May, and the 40th Street business in Ocean City.
The Avalon location at 3189 Dune Drive is year-round, as are the facilities in North Cape May and 21st Street in Ocean City.
As with any family saga, this one has neat twists and turns.
The establishment actually could have been called Aunt Eleanor’s.
Casey’s grandmother, Eleanor Donohue, was running an Uncle Bill’s Pancake House in Long Beach Island when the owner asked her to manage his new location in Stone Harbor.
She did, and a lightbulb went on. Eleanor offered to buy the location and obtained a deal. Over time, the Pennsylvania-based family gravitated here.
Eleanor and Bill Donohue became the first ownership generation.
Bill and Debbie O’Hara, Casey’s parents, are the second set.
Casey and his sister Tiffany Penza are the third generation of direct family owners.
Aunts and uncles individually own the other locations.
“We could have expanded even more and opened locations up near where our Pennsylvania clientele is,” Casey says, “but that would ruin the nostalgia. Part of their anticipation in coming to the shore is special establishments and activities that are available only there: ‘Hey, let’s go to Avalon and visit Uncle Bill’s. I haven’t been there all year.’
“I know I feel that way about a lot of businesses when I travel.”
Casey, born in 1978, grew up in the business. He began working as a dishwasher, then a cook. He was a waiter, a host, and whatever was needed.
He had to be available for work, even when it was occasionally painful.
“They were the rules,” he laughs. “I was an avid baseball player growing up. I was a pitcher and a catcher. One time I made the all-star team, but when it came time for the game, I couldn’t go. I had to work.”
That’s a hard development for a teenager to swallow. Think of how few honors people have earned at a young age. One comes along and it must be bypassed.
Casey understood the deeper commitment to the business even more on Labor Day.
“We all stayed there that night to clean up,” he recalls. “Everybody. The waiters, the waitresses, the hostesses, etc. We got everything back in order and enjoyed some beer and pizza for ourselves.
“I remember it being great, and that the next morning I was getting up at 5 a.m. to drive back to Pennsylvania for my first day of school.”
Over time, Casey’s relationship with the business evolved. He appreciated what his grandparents and parents had built, and what his aunts and uncles had expanded upon.
So, after he’d been able to construct an impromptu surfing tour – the West Coast, Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean – Casey had two realizations: One, surfing would not pay the bills. Two, his dad was offering a role in the family business.
That wave brought him home.
As the business expanded, some major principles emerged.
The company has the purchasing power of a large group and extends favorable prices that enable it to compete in the marketplace.
That might be Business 101 to some people. But there’s a Business 102, according to many successful entrepreneurs. That’s what you teach yourself.
“If you as an operator work with your employees, they are going to respect you more,” he says. “If you just walk around, sit down to have breakfast, and leave, they won’t respect you as much. But if you are hands-on, get involved and show them you care, a mutual respect develops there.”
Tiffany also savors what the longevity represents in her family. Many businesses won’t reach 60 months, let alone 60 years.
“It makes me very proud to be part of this,” she says. “It’s amazing that here is a business my grandparents started and it has evolved and thrived.
“When you think of how any business can do well for this long, I think it comes back to ‘You have to love it.’ That means you have to love seeing your customers every day, knowing that a few of the same people are here to open up with us every day.
“I enjoyed seeing my grandparents working and following their dream. We still have the wallpapering from 1962.”
“You also have to love the family aspect in your community. We have several employees here now who started as customers, loved being here, and now they work for us.”
For Tiffany, the pancake house became a part of her. Her grandmother named a menu item, Tiffany’s Delight, after her first grandchild in 1973.
Tiffany’s Delight is an English muffin, slice of ham, cheese and an egg. Some would view this as an Egg McMuffin somewhere else.
But here, it’s a family relic.
Tiffany has extended the tradition, naming Will’s Special, which is eggs Benedict, after her 25-year-old son. She added it in 1997, the year he was born.
Tiffany speculates that Will won’t pursue a future in the business, and it’s too early to know if any of Casey’s four children will want to pick up the baton to one day start a fourth generation.
But that’s a decision far off in the future, because Casey and Tiffany still have gas in the tank.
There’s every reason to think that in 20 years, Uncle Bill’s will celebrate the number 80.
