In September 1970 a new restaurant opened in Hermiston. Gilbert “Gib” Gettmann, then proprietor of Hermiston Drug, opened a restaurant behind the drug store on the corner of Highway 395 and East Hurlburt Avenue.

Smitty’s Pancake House held its grand opening on Sept. 4, 1970. The restaurant was part of a chain of restaurants that started in Seattle in 1957 by J. William “Smitty” Smith who attended the opening.

The story in the Hermiston Herald at the time said: “The $145,000 restaurant covers 3,100 square feet and seats 150 persons, including 30 in the private dining room.” The story reports that the restaurant featured all custom-built appliances and 18 stoves of various types to allow “many simultaneous instant-service cooking operations.

Smitty’s was located where the Golden Palace restaurant is located today. The Seattle-based restaurant chain did leave a legacy. There is a Smitty’s Pancake and Steak House in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and a Smitty’s Pancake House in Wenatchee, Washington, that still carry the name but are independently owned. There is a Smitty’s family restaurant chain in Canada, which takes it’s name from Smith’s Seattle restaurant. Smith was the founder of what is today know as Perkins Family Restaurants, and some of the early restaurants were franchised under the Perkins name, for Mat and Ivan Perkins, who took Smith’s recipes to the Midwest, where the two restaurant businesses — Smitty’s and Perkins — were separately operated.

The Smitty’s name is gone from Hermiston now, unless you count Smitty’s Ace Hardware, but some of us still remember things like pancakes for lunch after church on Sundays. For us Smitty’s meant pancakes long before Shari’s or Denny’s came to town.

Hermiston History is a regular feature in the Hermiston Herald. If you have something to share about the history of the greater Hermiston area, send your submission to editor@hermistonherald.com with “Hermiston History” in the subject line. If you have a question about the area’s history you would like the Herald staff to look into, you can send your questions to the same email address with “Hermiston History question” in the subject line.