Chris Cakes of St. Louis: “The Butter and Batter of all Things Delicious”
Paul Werkowitch, a longtime pancake-flipping expert, brought Chris Cakes to St. Louis in 2004 after years of working with Steve Hamilton in Kansas. Under his leadership, Chris Cakes STL has grown into a beloved breakfast and lunch catering company, known for its fast service, quality ingredients, and entertaining approach. With a commitment to feeding the community—including emergency response teams—Chris Cakes STL continues to serve up laughter and pancakes by the millions. DeliveryRank has the opportunity to find out more.
Chris Cakes is known for more than just delicious pancakes—your events are interactive and entertaining. What inspired the unique concept of high-flying, fast-paced pancake flipping, and how has it evolved over the years?
Our story is the American dream really. Lorin Christiansen started flipping pancakes and cracking jokes in 1969. He had so much fun, Steve Hamilton joined him and eventually bought Chris Cakes and moved our world headquarters to Louisburg, Kansas just south of Kansas City.
In the very beginning we used to have to crack our eggs and even make our own syrup! The overall design of our patented equipment has remained fairly similar after Steve (who was going to school for engineering) got involved and designed a few things.
I would say the evolution has been with better dry goods available. We now mix our own pancake mix in house instead of contracting it out. We do buy our syrup instead of making it. We have relentlessly focused on better quality and a genuine fun experience for our customers. The overall concept has remained remarkably similar but the technology behind the scenes has exploded 1000 fold. We even have ai involved on a regular basis for our scheduling and textbot. Our database technology alone is magic compared to less than a decade ago. Just wait until you see what we have coming in 2 or 3yrs! We are pretty excited.
Your catering services focus on large gatherings, from fundraisers to corporate events. What are some of the most memorable events you’ve catered, and how does your team handle the challenges of serving large crowds efficiently?
One of my personal most memorable event was for a little girl in St Louis. She had cancer and she was bald. The school was holding a fundraiser and the absolute smile on her face all night has stuck with me for a very long time. It was a very fun night.
Large events are our specialty. With our equipment we can serve hundreds of people in an hour and you simply scale that by adding more equipment and Event Specialists. We love all getting to work together as we are usually out on our own most days. When we work together we all have specific jobs to handle and we are simply the best at them. It really comes together like a well-oiled machine. I personally love logistics, so prior to the big day I work with the large events to coordinate line flow, timing, and spacing of serve lines, etc. Then I work with my team to develop a plan to fit the venue. We check and double check everything and then make it happen. Time and time again our large event customers tell us they were nervous the first year but we make it so easy and smooth that the second year they sleep like a baby before their event.
Chris Cakes St. Louis prides itself on providing an engaging experience for guests. How do your team members train to perfect the art of pancake flipping and keep the energy high during events?
This is actually harder than it sounds! One of the things we drive home during training is the last person in line MUST expect to get the same experience as the first person! After 3 hours and hundreds of people through your line you have to fall back on training to remember that the family or shift worker or individual in front of you has yet to see you and they’ve been standing in line just for this moment. You must show up in this job and our team does it better than anyone! You can always rest or relax after the event but when it is go time, we deliver.
Your pancakes have a reputation for being both delicious and fun to catch! Can you share insights into your signature recipe and how you maintain consistency while serving hundreds of people at a time?
Are you familiar with Gringotts Wizarding Bank? Our recipe is guarded better than that!
However! I can tell you consistency is definitely an important piece of the puzzle. We have specialty blending equipment that costs over $100k that you would find in any commercial flour packaging facility. We can blend several hundred pounds of flour in a couple of minutes then we package it for high-speed use onsite. This means that as long as we get the water in our onsite batter mixing correct then the mix will be consistent across all Event Specialists and from day to day and month to month.
That’s one thing people don’t realize. We ACTUALLY make pancakes onsite at your location! They are hot and fresh. Our griddles handle 48 at a time and it only takes a couple of minutes to dispense and flip them. This means we bring Chris Cakes Pancake mix (flour) onsite and mix it with water then pour that into our dispensers. It really is a sight to behold.
Giving back to the community seems to be an important part of Chris Cakes. Can you share some of the ways you’ve supported fundraisers and local organizations, and why community involvement is a key part of your business?
To be honest, the fundraising and community involvement comes from Steve Hamilton. Lorin may have also been heavily involved but I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing him, so I learned from Steve. It doesn’t matter WHAT the issue, be it a natural disaster or a child needing to raise money for something, Steve was ALWAYS the go to guy that would come through. He is one of the most giving people you’d ever meet. Extremely generous and always supporting his community. When I brought Chris Cakes to St Louis I could only hope to do a fraction of what Steve does as a matter of course. That’s where our fundraising spirit comes from, at least for me. Steve was and is a huge inspiration.
Our fundraising efforts help hundreds of organizations across the St Louis region raise tens of thousands of dollars every year. We do this by discounting Chris Cakes Pancakes, Sausage and Tang menu. This lets the organization charge over and above what we charge. We’d like to think we make a difference in our communities.
Chris Cakes is in Kansas City, St Louis MO, Pocahontas IA, Columbus OH, Claire MI, Louisville KY, and Portland OR. So, the combined impact of our fundraising efforts is huge across the country. We also travel nationwide so if your organization isn’t in one of those cities, contact us and we’ll put you in touch with the location that can best suit your needs.
If you would like to find out more about Chris Cakes of St. Louis, please visit https://www.chriscakesstl.com/