The morning line was out the door. Inside, the food was flying out of the kitchen. The celebration was in full swing Wednesday, which marks the original Du-par's 75th anniversary.
"People say,'Oh, you haven't changed.' Well, our food hasn't changed, our ambience hasn't changed," said Bill Naylor, the restaurant's owner. "If anything, everybody else changed, we didn't."
Just for Wednesday, the original 1938 menu is being served with all of the original prices.
Wednesday's special menu features French toast for $.35, buttermilk hot cakes for $.25, egg breakfast for $.30 and a slice of apple, rhubarb, gooseberry or boysenberry pie for $.15.
"Still waiting on Shirley Temple or Charlie Chaplin to come walking through here right now," said Clyde Jenkins of Hyde Park. "Thirty-three cents, I think my tips is going to be like 10 times as much as my meal today."
Du-par's opened at the site of the Original Farmers Market at Fairfax and Third back in 1938. The name came from the original owners - James Dunn and Edward Parsons. For generations, the food and ambience has served the community.
"I used to come here back in the 60s with my parents. I was an only child, and they used to come with some of my uncles and aunts and we spent the whole day walking around," said Daniel Ramirez of East Los Angeles.
The prices may be good for only one day, but some things will never change - like Du-par's secret pancake recipe, which is forever locked away in a safe by the front door.
"The real secret to it, though, is the flour mill that mills the flour for us mills some of the ingredients in the flour. So you can take how to make it, but you couldn't make it without that flour," said Naylor.
The old-time prices are only good until 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Original Farmers Market location in the Fairfax District.
