Cak’s Pancake House and Snack Bar
- John Walker
- Aug 8
- 5 min read
Sandwich of the late 1940s—World War II was over, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany vanquished, the population of around 2,400 people was returning to the business of life. This included my grandparents, Clarence and Mildred Cahoon.
Clarence was born in Fairhaven and grew up in Brockton. Even so, he had deep Cape roots. He was descended from William Cahoon, who had originally come to the New World as an indentured Scottish prisoner of war to work for the English colonists. After earning his freedom, he was killed in the opening days of the King Phillips War.
One of his six sons moved to Eastham and assisted in the founding of Chatham. Soon there were many Cahoons on Cape Cod, making their living as fisherman, sailors, sea captains, cranberry growers, and artists.
Clarence’s father was a Harwich native who had taken a job as a train engineer on the Hartford and New Haven Railroad. After several moves the family settled in the Brockton area.
His wife, Mildred, was born and raised in rural Maine. Her forebearers were French Canadian mill workers and had emigrated from Quebec. She was one of 11 children and worked as a clerk after graduating from Bridgeton High School.
They met and were subsequently married in New Hampshire in 1935. Clarence, who was known as Cak, was making his living as a baker, and they decided to return to Cape Cod. Mildred, Clarence and their son, Ronald, took up residence in Sandwich, living on Main Street.
Clarence opened a bakery in the Russell Block in 1935 and operated it until it was destroyed by fire in 1937. I am not sure what was done for employment in the next several years, but it was related to me that he sold fruit door-to-door.
In 1939 a daughter, Donna, joined the growing family. World War II was on the horizon and with it some serious disruption for the family. The Cahoon family left Sandwich and lived at various residences including addresses in Brockton, Massachusetts; Newport, New Hampshire; Hyannis, Massachusetts; and Sagamore, Massachusetts.
Mildred had five brothers serving during the war. Their correspondence was eye opening. During this time, Clarence worked at a shipyard in Hingham and also at Camp Edwards.
In 1947, Clarence and Mildred purchased some property and the building on it from Sandwich natives John and Olga Liberty. Bordered by the Atlantic Refining Company (later to become the Chevron Gas Station), Willow Street, and the State Highway as Route 6A was then known.
The building contained the makings of a restaurant, gift shop and living quarters. Cak’s Pancake House and Snack Bar was born. The address was listed as “Route 6A, next to the post office” on the front of a surviving menu, which was probably printed in the early 1960s.
I have what was probably an early business card--perhaps the original. Simply referred to as Cak’s Snack Bar, it listed the address as Route 6 “near the traffic lights....” If you remember, Route 6 was the State Highway until the Mid Cape Highway was constructed starting in 1950.
The business was run on a seasonal basis from 1946 through 1964. A sign that faced the gas station next door advertised the following: breakfast, fountain service, souvenirs, gifts, and saltwater taffy. Breakfast, lunch and dinner could all be had at Cak’s Pancake House and Snack Bar.
Almost all items were less than a dollar. Examples were coffee for 10 cents, buckwheat pancakes at 65 cents, blueberry waffles at 90 cents, clam rolls for 75 cents, and lobster salad sandwiches at 95 cents. You had to order a fried seafood dinner to find anything that cost more than a dollar—fried butterfly shrimp, for example, was $1.35.
Cak’s homemade chowder was also on the menu. It was one of my favorite meals to eat while growing up. His recipe included native freshly dug quahogs, potatoes, onions and salt pork. His "secret ingredient" was throwing the salt pork on the floor and kicking it around. He made the broth very thin; no cream or flour was added.
The child’s portion of the menu was called Cape Cod’s Kiddie Korner. The choices were “Huckleberry Finns,” “Little Princess,” “Chuck Wagon,” and “Toddler’s Glass Town Special.” All were available for less than a dollar and all were built around pancakes.
I have no memory of the interior setup. I do have a picture of me at about nine months of age being held at the snack bar by Ed Zion, Sandwich school teacher and women’s basketball coach.
The picture does show some of the interior: a wood counter and wood tables. I have been told that the top of the tables had hand-drawn artwork on them—images of the Christopher Wren Church, Old Town Hall, Grist Mill, and Hoxie House, among others, all drawn by my grandmother Mildred.
In addition, she sold her original paintings on both canvas and seashells. A table stood inside the front door. I have been told that it contained the dolls that all the girls wanted, “Ginny Dolls.” I would also expect that Cak offered for sale driftwood picture frames and handmade wooden stools and tables, although I have no pictures, paperwork, or stories to support that notion.
A third child, Nancy, was born in 1946. As far as I am aware, all three children had jobs or responsibilities related to the operation of the snack bar at one time or another.
Flooding in downtown Sandwich is not a new problem. The snack bar flooded at least twice due to high tides and storms, first in 1955 and again in 1959. The marsh at that time extended right up to Willow Street.
I don’t know why they closed in 1964. The snack bar property was sold to a trust. It was operated as a pharmacy for many years, and it currently houses South Coast Kitchen Design.
Clarence and Mildred built a house in the late '50s on Route 6A, between Spring Hill Cemetery and Gully Lane. A portion of the old snack bar was separated from the main building and moved by Hayden Movers to use as the center of a small house built a couple of doors down from my grandparent’s house.
My grandparents operated a gift shop called “The Old Salty Studio” out of a garage/barn on their East Sandwich property until the mid-1980s. They sold many of the same items as in the gift shop at Cak’s Pancake House and Snack Bar.
Many thanks to Joan Russell Osgood, Linda Alvezi Crocker, Chip Hamlen, Charles Van Buskirk and the late Don Fleet for contributing their memories of the snack bar via conversations, messages and Facebook.
John Walker is a member of the Friends of the Sandwich Town Archives, a dedicated, all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to supporting and promoting the archives’ collections and the rich, diverse history of the town of Sandwich.