Restaurant recommends: Sands Pancake House

Ordering a meal from Becky Welker at Sands Pancake House feels like telling your favorite aunt you want pancakes at a family reunion at grandma's house.

Welker teases customers and bustles around the tables, leaving pitchers of tea and water on large tables so customers can serve themselves. The restaurant, both open and crowded at the same time, has pictures of family, the American flag and hearts strung up to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Welker has worked at Sands Pancakes with owner Betty Calhoun "since the dawn of time," she said. Here, she and Calhoun offer their favorite dishes.

Entree: Betty's Big Burger

A double bacon cheeseburger served with a big helping of fries. "We've got the best fries in town," Welker said.

Breakfast: Pancakes

Sands doesn't list appetizers and it's a pancake house, so recommending the homemade pancakes was a no-brainer for the women. They mix up a secret recipe kept by Calhoun's nearly 97-year-old mother, throw it on a grill and serve them hanging off the plate.

Drink: Sweet Tea

This sweet tea belongs in a mason jar on a porch swing in the Deep South. "I make it every day," Welker said. "It's sweet."

Dessert: Blackberry cobbler

"I'm more of a breakfast place," Calhoun said, but she recommended the blackberry cobbler. It's not homemade, but they sell a lot of it, she said.

Sands Pancake House

1448 Kingshighway

335-0420

Hours: 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday to Saturday