You could say Samuel Taylor is a pancake connoisseur—he used to eat pancakes twice a day in his quest to perfect them. "I got obsessed with pancakes," he said. He was trying to impress a girl. And it worked. They're engaged and will be married this fall.
Taylor has had arguments over pancakes and late-night discussions about them. He came up with a pancake that was a substantial enough breakfast to make it through a workout while still staying true to the light fluffiness of, you know, being a pancake. His continued obsession eventually got his mother, Susanna, thinking about going into business, and thus Long Table Pancakes was born.
Taylor is also an actor, with numerous credits at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, including Julius Caesar and Henry VIII. He’s appeared in Lookingglass Theatre Company’s Lookingglass Alice, in which he co-starred as the White Knight to the title character played by Lindsey Noel Whiting—the girl those pancakes were born to impress. The couple will star together in the new play Mr. and Mrs. Pennyworth at Lookingglass next winter.
Long Table Pancakes uses local products and ingredients as much as possible and, when they can't find something local, takes great strides to find ingredients from companies that address "the complex ethical and environmental issues facing the food industry," according to the company's website. Currently, Long Table Pancakes has two varieties—White Knight and Windy Point. The former is made with popcorn flour and has a poppyseed crunch, pairing well with berries and chocolate, while Windy Point is more substantial, earthy and just right for maple syrup.
Long Table Pancakes makes its own popcorn flour. They attach blender blades to a stone mill, "like Mad Max and Rube Goldberg had a baby," Taylor said. Interested in trying them for yourself? You can buy the mixes on the company's website, or find them at Gene's Sausage Shop & Delicatessen and the Logan Square Farmers Market.