Love stack: Pancake-obsessed Santa Cruz musician tackles different kind of record

Normally one would expect a coffee roastery to smell of – well – coffee. However, on Saturday, the scent of pancakes fresh off the griddle filled the air at 11th Hour Coffee’s roastery on Santa Cruz’s Westside as local artist and musician Andy Fairley – aka Andy Pankakes – attempted to break the Guinness world record for pancake stacking. 

Yes, you read that right. Pancake stacking. 

“I think we got it,” Fairley said with his signature casual demeanor. “When I tell people the current record is 3 foot and 4 inches, they all say what I did at first, ‘Aw that’s nothing.’ But when you look at the video of the current record holders and see the stack, it’s not as easy as it sounds. But I’ve got a good team.” 

An avid breakfast enthusiast – his house is cylindrical (like a pancake stack) and his aesthetic is breakfast-themed – Fairley is known to spread the buttery love.

“Breakfast is a passion that I carry into my musical sphere,” he said as he flipped a pancake. “I want to spread the maple syrup to the people, and the pancake is just a vessel for the syrup to flow through.” 

And this weekend was no different. 

Labeled as his annual Pankake Fest, the 12-hour event featured five local bands – Rio & the Soup, Perch, Sin Nombre, Flat Sun Society and Andy Pankakes himself, dressed in a custom-made pancake outfit complete with butter and syrup hat. There were also several artist booths, a wrestling ring, an impromptu syrup-chugging contest and – of course – pancakes. Stacks on stacks on stacks of pancakes.

“We’ve got 75 pounds of flour, 20 dozen eggs and 4 gallons of milk,” Fairley said. “These are based on ingredients the current record holders used and my own recipe.” 

Emilio Rios – who plays guitar for the nine-piece, experimental groove funk collective Sin Nombre – was another of the volunteers who helped make and measure the hotcakes. 

“This moment’s been coming,” Rios said of his friend Fairley. “This is like the Olympics. I’ve been helping out with the pancakes and I think it’s going to work.” 

The 11th Hour roastery was chosen as the event location because of Fairley’s connection with owners Brayden and Joel Estby. They had met years before when Fairley performed at 11th Hour’s downtown Santa Cruz location and through local art collective Liminal Space. The event also just so happened to coincide with the local coffee company’s sixth anniversary – which 11th Hour celebrates annually on Halloween weekend. 

Throughout the day, a couple hundred people flowed in and out of the festival to chat, mix ingredients, flip the pancakes and to give the breakfast champion all the encouragement they could batter. 

“It’s a great idea,” said Tyler Ross, who favors his pancakes with fruit.

A friend of Fairley’s, Ross also put in time behind the portable, flat-top stove.

“Of course Andy loves pancakes,” he said, “but you’d think every diner in America would try to do this.” 

Writer, poet and jewelry maker Nina Stratton was one of the artists in attendance, selling her homemade earrings. 

“I 100% believe he has this,” she said. “I’m a fan of Andy Pankakes.” 

Wendy Frances – Fairley’s manager and whose favorite pancakes are chocolate chip – helped Fairley come up with the event when they were trying to figure out new ways of promoting his music. 

“We were talking about crazy stunts we could pull and I said, ‘Why not go for the Guinness world record for pancake stacking?’” she remembered. “And he looked at me and, ‘You’re crazy, I’m in!’” 

To prepare, Fairley not only tinkered with his recipe he also consulted physicists and local chefs to figure out the perfect way to attempt snagging the title. 

The record he had to beat was set in 2016 by chefs James Haywood and Dave Nicholls of Center Parcs Sherwood Forest – a resort in the United Kingdom. It took them 45 minutes to make and stack the 213-pancake tower, which used 13 bags of flour, 360 eggs and 26 pints (about 3.5 gallons) of milk. Each pancake had to be within a certain diameter and thickness to qualify and the stack had to stand on its own for at least 5 seconds. The cakes also must be edible. 

“I’m using a high-gluten recipe,” Fairley said as he mixed some batter. “I’ve done some test runs and they’re pretty tasty.”

His strategy was to cook the pancakes first and let them cool in order to maintain some sort of firmness. He also added walnuts to dozens of cakes for extra structural integrity. They were then put into smaller, individual stacks that were measured. When there were enough small stacks that collectively beat the current record, Fairley and company started the final stack on a certified level surface. 

That stacking began at 9:40 p.m. when Fairley built the tower base and continued for another 2½ hours as friends held it in place and gave instructions on where certain parts were leaning. Group chants of “Stacks on stacks on stacks” and “stack it up” roared through the crowd as the final result was 133 pancakes towering 42 inches – or 3 feet, 6 inches. 

“This has got to be the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Rowan Graves, who played drums for both his band Perch and Andy Pankakes. 

Yet, despite the hopes, dreams and love, the stack would not stand on its own. By 12:12 a.m., Fairley called it to an end. 

“It was a valiant effort,” he told the remaining crowd. “We did good work and I’m proud of everyone. It’s a beautiful thing and next year we’re going to f—ing get it! I want to see all of you there.” 

And that’s the thing. 

Pankake Fest was more than just about Fairley and breakfast. It was a communal labor of love. Throughout the day – and well into the next morning – Santa Cruz showed up to celebrate. In addition to friends and supporters, strangers walking in the area were drawn into the festivities out of curiosity and the delicious smell. Whether it was to dance, play music, sell art, make food, mix ingredients, flip pancakes or help to keep the eventual tower of hotcakes steady, it was clear Fairley definitely “spread the syrup” to the community. 

“Really it’s about bringing people together, music and having fun,” he said. “And any party is made better with the presence of food. If I could have pancakes served at all the future music performances I do, that would be pretty rad.” 

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