The Church of the Pancake

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

It’s one of those things that’s best explained with images, rather than words.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

This Sunday morning, dozens of visibly hungover Art-a-Whirlers stumbled into a backyard in Northeast Minneapolis and celebrated a communion of pancakes and syrup hosted by Chef Chris Olson (above), writer and .gif-crafter Peter Hajinian (wearing striped tie, below), and the Como Avenue Jug Band. Pancakes, sausages, and bacon were cooked up on electric griddles. Mimosas were mixed. And Olson, wearing clothing that could generously be described as “liturgical-ish,” gave an impassioned Southern revival-style sermon on the importance of the pancake. Hajinian presented a two-part reading from the Book of Peter, most easily summarized as an account of a rogue planet and Earth facing off against each other using an interplanetary missile-mounted llapingacho and a interplanetary missile-mounted pancake, respectively.

Finally, members of the jug band played some of their trademarked award-winning, soulful, blood pressure lowering, joyfully ragged and casual tunes. There are numerous reasons to be proud of the Minneapolis food/art/music scene, but the Church of the Pancake must surely rank amongst the weirdest.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

3 Comments

  1. Colin

    Shanai and I are so bummed to have missed this. You’d think being in Portland, home of the food cart and other gastronomical wonders would be a decent trade off… but we’ve been battling a NASTY little foodborne illness called the norovirus the whole time. Thanks Amtrak!

    Should have stayed home and gone to church instead.

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