By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Hilo has Ken's. Wailuku has Tasty Crust. Lihu'e has Tip Top.

Until recently, I didn't know Honolulu had its own family-friendly, local style, shoyu bottles on the table, two eggs short stack Vienna sausage on the side combo, power breakfast place.

Sure, Boots and Kimo's in Kailua. That's the same category. Wailana in Waikiki, of course, but Waikiki is so busy-busy.

Shame to admit I didn't know that in the heart of urban Honolulu was a restaurant with that same pancake and Vienna sausage soul. In fact, that's exactly the way it was said to me: "What?! You never ate there? Whassa' matter you? You not shame?"

The Original Pancake House on Waiakamilo by Dillingham isn't original. It's actually a Mainland chain, but other than menu items like Dutch babies and peach bisquit, it's completely, totally local style. Shoyu bottle next to ketchup bottle on the table. Poi pancake with lilikoi butter on the menu. Regular customers so ma'a with the place that they pay their bill by piling a handful of dollars by the cash register before waving goodbye.

Everything in the restaurant is brown. Brown wallpaper, brown faux wood paneling, brown turned-wood spindle accents hiding the doors to the bathroom. The decor is meant to be Alpine inspired, with spice racks and bread boards and a large picture of a rustic cabin by a placid mountain pool (done predominantly in shades of brown) adorning the brown walls. Each table sports a single, perfect (not fake) red rose with a Coke bottle for a vase.

The Original Pancake House has been in Kalihi for 30 years. It's in a nondescript hollow-tile two-story building that is also home to, of all things, Club Colorful. Other neighbors include Wang's Waiakamilo Restaurant, the Waiakamilo Drive Inn and Club Bogey + 1.

What's so soulful and endearing is the way people treat each other there.

It's a place where the servers are so comfortable and natural with their customers that they can say things like, "I told you, don't touch the plate! Hot!" and "No get mad. One more plate coming. Look!" and not sound sassy. They can eye up a customer and say, "No, you small. You should get the short stack. Five pancakes too much for you. You cannot finish."

It's also a place where customers argue at the hostess stand, "No, you go first. I came after you."; where parents with unruly children get sympathetic smiles from the other patrons, not dirty looks.

When the morning sun shines off the roof of Club Bogey + 1, reflecting in the opaque amber plastic paneling in the front window, the brown glow filling the Original Pancake House is as warm and welcoming as a side order of Vienna sausage.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.