I've long been a fan of the fresh doughnuts and bacon cheeseburgers at Brown's Restaurant, the 31-year-old boardwalk institution in Ocean City. So it was no surprise that the blueberry pancakes were stupendous, too. These were literally blueberry bombs, so filled with warm fruit that sweet blue juice exploded with every bite my daughter Alice took, splattering her white shirt, painting her lips indigo, turning her tongue purple.
Even with those berry pyrotechnics, though, Alice conceded that the finest berry hotcakes of the week had been eaten the day before at charmingly down-home Gilchrist Offshore on the White Horse Pike in Galloway Township.
Run by Mike Barham, 25, and his mom, Denise Stamat, this fourth-generation breakfast-and-lunchery opened a mainland branch in May when its Atlantic City location was demolished after it had begun crumbling into the bay. The original is being rebuilt. But this location already feels at home in the tidy, bright dining room it has carved from a former filling station.
The veteran servers are cheery as they deliver hearty breakfasts to a largely local crowd (despite the sign warning "Beware Attack Waitress"). But Barham's hotcakes are the main attraction. Not only are they filled with fruit, the batter is tender and fluffy, not rubbery, almost like inflated crepes.
Barham also makes a simple but notably airy omelet. And Gilchrist's is also one of the last bastions of good pie, with crumble-topped apple, silky dark chocolate cream, and banana cream slices that are worth stopping back for lunch. (In particular, for Thursday's meat loaf special.)
