Meet Karen Kinney!
You’ve probably seen Karen Kinney’s smiling face around the Original Pancake House each time you head out for breakfast at our Cherry Hills location. Karen was the Manager of our Denver Tech Center location for ten years before she transferred to Cherry Hills to become a General Manager this past October. We thought you might like to get to know the lady behind the smile. Read on to learn a bit more about our wonderful General Manager, Karen Kinney!
Q: Tell us a bit about yourself and where you are from.
A: My name is Karen Kinney, and I am from Canada. I was born in a small town in Alberta called Medicine Hat, and raised in British Columbia in a place called Invermere, just outside of the Banff National Park. I met my husband Troy skiing in Kimberley B.C. and moved to Spokane Wash. where we lived until moving to St. Louis Mo. for 2 years, and Clovis Ca. for 8 months, before settling down in Highlands Ranch where we have raised our 2 children.
Q: How long have you been with the Original Pancake House?
A: I started as a server for the Original Pancake House Denver Tech Center when my daughter was 4yrs old, and she is now 16 and works as a Host for our Cherry Hills location. Our son also worked for me at the DTC location as a Host while he was in High School. I became a Manager at DTC the same year I started working there and have been with the Franchise for 12 years now. I was promoted in September of last year and given the position of General Manager for the Cherry Hills location.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at OPH?
A: My favorite part of working for the Pancake House is the people! I love the staff and guests as they have become my family since my real family is in Canada still. They make me laugh, cry and smile with all of their stories, jokes and antics.
Q: What is your favorite menu item?
A: My favorite menu item is always changing; I eat something different every day! But interestingly enough before I started working here I did not like to eat eggs. Now I will crave a simple side of scrambled eggs almost every day.
Q: If you could have breakfast with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and what would you eat?
A: It I could have breakfast with anyone I suppose I would choose Lady Diana. She was such an amazing and poised person that had so much to offer in the short time she was with us. With her I would love to show off our delicate Dutch Baby and that would be my breakfast choice, along with a side of our infamous bacon, and hot tea of course!
Thank you Karen for sharing a little bit about yourself! The next time you are out for breakfast in Denver, be sure to say “hi” to Karen, she will always treat you as family.
The Endless Possibilities of Eggs
While the egg is a familiar ingredient in many breakfasts, do you know the nutritional power and endless possibilities of this breakfast staple? Eggs have numerous cooking roles from adding flavor, moisture, texture, and richness to many our best breakfast dishes that our patrons can’t get enough of. So, we’re excited to share some fun facts about eggs that will leave you craving to crack another egg in the pan.
Going down in history What came first the chicken or the egg? While that debate rages on, ancient history indicates that eggs have been consumed
for centuries with more than 75 billion eggs produced in the U.S. today, about 10% of the world supply. We’re making quite a dent in that figure at The Original Pancake House as we serve more than 25,900 little white bundles a week.
More than 20+ functions Eggs have more than 20 functions in cooking recipes according to the American Egg Board. Eggs provide adhesion to certain foods, binding to other ingredients, and coating for your favorite battered delicacy. They are hard at work in all our pancake, waffle, and crepe batters and provide a lovely texture in our Apple Pancake and Dutch Baby custards.
It’s all in the yolk The egg yolk provides approximately 40% of the daily protein we need in each egg. So next time you’re craving some of our home-made hollandaise sauce on our much loved eggs benedict, go for it!
Outnumbering its breakfast friends Eggs possess an impressive macronutrient composition unmatched by its fellow breakfast ingredients that contributes to its powerhouse of nutrition including the ingredient we all need in the morning: Vitamin D.
And did you know?
- Most eggs are laid during optimal breakfast time: between 7am and 11am.
- There are a whopping 13 nutrients in one egg
- A chef’s hat is said to have a pleat for each of the many ways you can cook eggs.
Often the ingredient-behind-the-scenes, eggs are an absolute necessity in your fridge and in your next meal at The Original Pancake House Denver. Today and every day, we thank eggs for being the rock stars of the kitchen fridge, the packed powerhouses of protein, and delicious delicacies that titillate the most fastidious palette.
Important Ingredients: 5 Reasons to Love The Original Pancake House
We recently came across this article profiling the most important restaurants in America. The author noted that it wasn’t the fanciest, trendiest or most popular ones that made the list, but the ones with consistently good food, unique recipes and happy customers.
Even without any breakfast restaurants topping the list, we’re confident that we have all the ingredients necessary for an important restaurant:
- 15-Ingredient-Made-From-Scratch Pancake Batter: You can’t find stuff this good in stores, folks. And we’re not giving away our recipe either.
- The Dutch Baby: If a pancake and a crepe had a child, it would be The Dutch Baby. Oven baked and served with whipped butter, lemon and powdered sugar, this is one of our favorites.
- Salty and Sweet: There’s a reason people don’t mind a little syrup getting on their bacon. It’s the perfect combination, and if you haven’t tried it yet, our Bacon Belgian Waffle will win you over.
- Breakfast for Lunch: More commonly known as brunch, this is the most important meal of the weekend. Anyone care to disagree?
- Green Chile: Coloradoans love their green chile, and we have some of the best in the country – Mark Schlereth’s Green Chile Sauce. It’s gluten-free and has become the official green chile of Coors Field and Pepsi Center. Try it on one of our omelettes, or with your bacon and eggs.
And when the most important stop of someone’s day is having breakfast at our Cherry Hills or Denver Tech Center location, well, that just tops the list. We invite you to come in and try one (or all!) of our important ingredients, and find your own reason to love The Original Pancake House.