Back in the day California’s pancake house was called SAMBO’S.
From article: In 1957, two white men from Southern California were brainstorming a name for their new restaurant. Sam Battistone Sr. was a “short, compact and determined looking” man who had run a diner in downtown Santa Barbara for two decades. Newell Bohnett was a 34-year-old equipment salesman whose father had been the mayor of Santa Barbara. They wanted a name that was catchy, and that would be familiar to the working and middle class families they hoped to cater to. Combining Battistone’s first name with the first two letters of Bohnett’s last name, they christened their new establishment Sambo’s. The first Sambo’s Pancake House opened on June 17, 1957 on beachfront Cabrillo Boulevard in downtown Santa Barbara.
The paintings that adorned Sambo’s Pancake House were a retelling of the hugely popular children’s book Little Black Sambo.
By 1969, it was said that Sambo’s was serving enough coffee each day “to float a 45-foot-yacht.” Sambo’s restaurants were opening all around the country at a dramatic pace — the chain added 125 new restaurants in 1975 alone. At its peak, Sambo’s would have 1,117 locations in 47 states. But civil rights leaders and town councils began to object to the restaurant with the racially charged name appearing in their town. In the late ‘70s, protests and lawsuits challenging the Sambo’s name were occurring in Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Ohio and Michigan.
Go to the link to read about the downfall of SAMBO”S. It was not what you may think.
https://www.kcet.org/food-living/the-troubling-history-of-sambos-pancake-house
Interesting, Spunky, thanks.