Story and Photos By Gabe Toth

Berthoud’s City Star Brewing hosted the Fourth Annual Flap Jack Day on Labor Day, serving up piles of pancakes, flights of breakfast beers and crowning the Flap Jack Queen as part of its annual fundraiser for the Berthoud Historical Society.

Residents and visitors donned 1950’s attire for a throwback to Berthoud’s mid-century festival that was shut down in the late 1950s. This year’s Flap Jack Day saw about 1,500 pancakes devoured and $1,600 raised for the Berthoud Historical Society.

Seven women faced off for the title of Flap Jack Queen in a race to finish five flapjacks with syrup and butter. Lynsey Morgan retained her title for a third year in a row, trimming 10 seconds off her time last year for a 43-second championship round.

The breakfast beer flight included a coffee blonde, an IPA infused with Rocky Ford melons, a peach brulee brown ale with Palisade peaches and Mexican vanilla, an apple turnover lager featuring apples and cinnamon, and a maple stout.

Vintage cars lined the street outside of the brewery, including a 1956 Chevy Bel Air, the vintage Berthoud #1 fire truck, and a neon green 1972 Honda N-600.

Flap Jack Day originated in Berthoud in 1948 as a Lions Club and chamber of commerce event, where an estimated crowd of 1,000 polished off 5,000 flap jacks. The following year, according to the Berthoud Bulletin, it grew to 3,700 people and 7,400 pancakes, and over subsequent years, it came to include the Flap Jack Queen crowning, swimming and diving contests, baton twirling, pet- and doll-parades, a pig-catching scramble and a tractor driving contest.

The tradition continued until 1959 when the chamber decided it was to costly to run the event. City Star revived the shindig in 2015 with much of the same fanfare from the past.