Polly's Pancake Parlor, Sugar Hill, New Hampshire

Our Memorial Day trip up to the White Mountains can never be complete without a trip to one of our favorite breakfast places, Polly's Pancake Parlor.  Sit back and enjoy the morning view of the White Mountains as you sip your coffee and drink your tea, which is served in the one of the biggest pewter teapots I've ever seen.  I can say with all honesty that this is the BEST place in the entire Northeast for pancakes and waffles.  Everything is homemade, right down to the maple sugar and butter that you can sprinkle or spread on your pancakes, waffles or french toast.  I also recommend the tasty maple toast. 

Here I am at Polly's enjoying a cup of hot decaf coffee right before my serving of a wonderful buckwheat walnut waffle which I shared with my friend Rob.  Susan was served a delicious tuna salad with fresh lettuce and homemade dark rye.

The history of the Parlor is just as interesting. The restaurant is housed in what was a carriage shed built around 1830. Wanting to show the different things that can be done with maple products and to stimulate sales, Polly and Wilfred Dexter converted this into a small tea room during the Depression. The original menu, which can be seen in a large display case along with other early artifacts of the restaurant, was shaped like a maple leaf, their trademark to this day. Polly's offered pancakes, waffles and french toast, all you can eat for 50 cents.

In 1949, Nancy Dexter (Polly and Wilfred's daughter) married Roger Aldrich and took over the management of Polly's that same year.

Since the death of Nancy's parent's, Wilfred in 1960 and Polly in 1964, the size of the Parlor has been expanded three times.  The months of operation also changed from its original 3 months to 6 months.Here is a picture of what Polly's looks like now at 7 in the morning before the crowd on Memorial Day.

Our friends, Dennis and Kathy Cote (Nancy's and Roger's daughter) have recently assumed management of the operation and are doing a great job. If you come really early in the morning, you can catch Roger and Nancy enjoying their morning breakfast.  Everyone at Polly's is friendly, helpful and easy to talk to. 

While there, you can check out their souvenirs at the counter in the lobby which include tee shirts, caps, sweatshirts, pancake mixes and some of the best maple products you've ever tasted, all homemade (except the syrup which is hand selected) .  Also check out the lovely artwork hand painted by Nancy Aldrich and Debbie Aldrich (Kathy's sister).

This is me sitting on Trot Trot.  This is the third horse on this spot. The first was built by Roger in 1988 and was replaced by Trot Trot II in 1991.  The head of the original Trot Trot is on display in the dining room.


Here is another link to find the history of this little horse:
 http://www.pollyspancakeparlor.com/faqs.html





There are two links I'm including here, one is the online catalog.  The other is the Polly's Pancake Parlor site.
Enjoy!

http://www.pollyspancakeparlor.com/history.html

http://www.pollyspancakeparlor.com/