I don’t know what I expected when I pushed open the Blue Chair’s battered door that morning. Maybe a plate heaped with pancakes. Maybe the comfort of old routines. But not this.

The look on the server’s face said it first — sincere, a little shocked, and touched by some quiet sorrow. He hesitated, the pause hanging in the air between us, heavy as goodbye.

TAIT: Iconic Ritchie eatery the Blue Chair closing its doors for good Back to video

“I’m sorry,” he began, careful and slow. “We don’t have pancakes on the menu anymore.”

My jaw dropped — emptied of words, emptied of appetite. Simple as that. For years now, I’d only come for one thing. For pancakes — my all-time morning meal. Only ever needed the brunch menu for that. Never once strayed.

Losing the Blue Chair pancakes — those-oh-so-fluffy rounds, made with yogurt, berry-studded just enough for a surprise kiss of fruit, drowned in syrup sweet as first love — hit me. They were the best I’d tasted. Next to Mom’s, of course. No contest. The server said nobody ordered pancakes anymore. Too much batter was wasted in the back. Nobody thought to call me.

So I took a breath and chose a three-cheese omelette — can’t complain, it was pretty good. And then........

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