Banana Pancakes

Most restaurants that serve pancakes offer optional fruit – either mixed into the batter or simply scattered atop the griddled cakes. Such adornment can be perfunctory or it can be inspired. At Key West’s Blue Heaven, it truly is heavenly. Partly, that is because the pancakes are made from scratch, which you will not doubt when you watch the edge of your fork press down against the slightly crisp surface, which yields then snaps as the fork falls into a thin ribbon of cooked batter as eggy as custard. Sliced bananas are mixed right in, so they appear as golden discs peeping up from inside the pancake. What really makes these banana pancakes superb is that their fruit sweetness is balanced by an anti-sweet smack reminiscent of sourdough. When we inquired if indeed it was sourdough, Blue Heaven cooks revealed that the secret ingredient that gives their pancakes that certain something extra is Budweiser beer in the batter.