Corona’s Silver Dollar Pancake House plans to ‘bring back the nostalgia’ – San Bernardino Sun

“We took less money to do the right thing,” Killingsworth said. “Everybody agreed that was what my mom, Charmayne, would have wanted.”

Riverside County records show the sale was completed June 4.

Silver Dollar Pancake House, with its iconic, tall, free-standing sign and circular roof, is on the east-central side of Corona at Sixth Street and Grand Boulevard. It is near the more-than-century-old City Park.

The restaurant opens daily from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., serving breakfast and lunch.

Fogel said he and his wife have spent more than $100,000 on upgrades for the half-acre piece of real estate. In recent weeks they paved the parking lot, and painted the restaurant inside and out.

They also put fresh coats of paint on the free-standing sign and on a roof sign, he said.

Now they are turning attention to the lights.

‘Glowing symbol’

By mid-October, Fogel said he intends to illuminate the rooftop “Pancake House” letters.

“We’re going to do it in powder blue,” he said.

Later in the fall, Fogel said, he plans to dress the free-standing sign in neon.

That sign sports a circular silver-dollar figure and an arrow. Fogel said he is considering white lights for the arrow and powder-blue lights for the silver dollar figure — to match the roof.

Local preservationists are helping. They have mounted a campaign to defray the cost of relighting the iconic welcome sign.

Since July, the Corona Historic Preservation Society has secured pledges totaling more than $10,000 from private donations and county funds, said Wes Speake, society president and a Corona City Council  member.

“This investment helps keep our history alive,” Speake said.

The street-side sign was a shining landmark travelers drove past as they headed east out of town toward Riverside, and west into Corona, Speake said, at a time when there was much open space between the cities.

He described the sign as “a glowing symbol of Corona’s rich history and enduring spirit.” But Speake said it has been dark for more than three decades.

What it will take to make the sign glow again is unclear.

Shopping for neon

Fogel said he has received estimates ranging from $20,000 to $36,000.

“I’m still shopping,” he said.

If the price exceeds the amount raised, Fogel said he will cover the difference.

Located at 710 E. Sixth St., the address is the site of Corona’s longest continuously operated restaurant, Speake said.

The eatery debuted as The Copper Kettle in September 1936, Speake wrote in a historical account. It operated under various other names, among them Lindy’s, during the 1940s and ’50s.

In 1962, owner Jack Leeson applied for and received a permit from the city to install a neon sign, Speake said. The Silver Dollar Pancake House opened in September of that year.

In 1970, Roland Ossko purchased the restaurant business, while Leeson retained ownership of the land and building, according to Speake. Charmayne Killingsworth, Leeson’s daughter, later inherited the property.

Washing dishes for blue jeans

In 1976, a young man who would figure prominently in the restaurant’s history walked through its doors. Barely 13 1/2 years old, Robert Hernandez filled out an application.

“I kind of lied to get a job,” Hernandez said.

Blame it on blue jeans and peer pressure.

“I wanted to wear Levi’s to school instead of Toughskins,” Hernandez said.

His family didn’t have much money. His mother told him if he wanted a pair of Levi’s, he had to pay for them himself.

He decided to wash dishes at the Silver Dollar Pancake House.

Six months later, the staff started training him in the art of cooking.

“They used to call me ‘The Crockpot’” early on, he said. “I was the slow cooker.”

Hernandez got up to speed, and by age 16, he was cooking on his own without supervision. At 18, he said, he became head cook.

A decade later, Ossko decided to sell the business. Hernandez purchased it with his wife, Diana, on Oct. 31, 1991.

Fires and health challenges

Hernandez, now 62, is still running the day-to-day operations.

The menu, featuring 18 varieties of pancakes, is “pretty much” what it was when he filled out that dishwasher application 49 years ago.

“I added a few things,” Hernandez said. “But the pancakes are still the pancakes they have always been.”

There have been setbacks over the years.

There was a major fire on Oct. 26, 1994. Diana Hernandez said the blaze caused $260,000 damage, destroying the kitchen, office, refrigerator and much of the dining room.

“The heat was so intense it melted everything,” she said.

“We were closed for over a year,” her husband added.

Another fire, not as severe and confined to the dining room, struck in October 2004. This time the restaurant shuttered for three months, Robert Hernandez said.

There have been personal setbacks, too.

Robert Hernandez said he was treated for colon cancer in 2021. Late that year an autoimmune muscle disease called myositis temporarily left him paralyzed and sent him to the hospital.

“I had an anniversary there, a birthday there, even the Super Bowl there — the year my favorite team won,” Robert Hernandez said. That was when, in early 2022, the Los Angeles Rams came from behind to claim the NFL title.