Annual pancake breakfast draws hundreds, spotlights downtown Paso Robles
By Stephen Ellison · Wed Jul 29 2026
Paso Robles Main Street Association's 27th pancake breakfast honors Norma Moye's legacy while bringing neighbors together
PASO ROBLES — Hundreds of hungry and devoted community members turned out for the 27th annual Paso Robles Main Street Association Pancake Breakfast on July 23, the first without the event’s beloved architect, Norma Moye, who passed away in December.
The welcome smell of hot pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and coffee filled downtown’s City Park during the cool morning hours as people lined up along 12th Street to get their free breakfast. Sponsored in part by the California Mid-State Fair (CMSF), food and drinks were provided by Jeffry’s Wine Country BBQ and served up by volunteers from the Main Street Association, Re/Max Success of Templeton and the Lions Club as well as other local organizations and community members.
Jeffry Wiesinger, owner of Jeffry’s and the interim executive director of the Main Street Association, has been the de facto coordinator for the breakfast over the past three years. He said he’s been more than happy to fill Moye’s shoes to the best of his ability.
“It’s a fantastic community event. It started out with Norma telling the (CMSF) board that during the fair, business slows down in downtown Paso,” Wiesinger said. “So, she asked, ‘What can you guys do to help us stimulate business in downtown?’ And they all came up with the concept of a free pancake breakfast.”
The original idea had organizers distributing tickets to downtown merchants, who would then hand them out to patrons in the days leading up to the event. But the ticket concept in recent years seemed to become a hindrance for some, and organizers decided to do away with that extra step.
Photos by Derek Luff/PRP
“(We) decided let’s nix the tickets and figure out another way,” Wiesinger said. “Let’s just make this a great community event. The whole intention is focusing on downtown.”
Along with the hot breakfast, the event featured roaming entertainment from The Wilder Show, a juggling unicyclist; magic from Shawn Eric, Magic Fun; a bubble show from Scott Makes Bubbles; and horse-drawn wagon rides around the square from Harris Stage Lines.
Longtime Paso Robles residents Dan and Bonnie Ross said they’ve been going to the pancake breakfast for about 20 years. The retired couple walked down to City Park from their home off Creston Road, about a mile away.
“We enjoy getting out and seeing the people, and they serve a decent breakfast,” said Dan Ross, a retired school principal in the Atascadero Unified School District. “It went much smoother. They started at eight o’clock last year, and it was lined up to the corner, so we had to wait about 15 minutes before we got up to the food service.”
A year ago, the event began later than the scheduled 7:30 a.m. start due to unplanned delays, organizers said, and that caused some of the early birds like the Rosses to stack up before service opened.
Keeping with tradition, this year’s event featured recently crowned Miss CMSF queen Gabby Bodenshot, along with princesses JoDee Jones and Iris Ratzat, greeting visitors at the front of the line. Patti Lucas, director of the scholarship pageant, was there too, serving as a fair liaison. She said a little more than 1,000 people turned out for the event, a total that was down from more than 1,500 who showed up in 2025.
Lucas said it has been a bit rough coming back from the pandemic to reach the numbers they had pre-COVID. More promotion via social media from the fair and the Main Street Association likely would have pushed the number higher, she added.
“When we brought it back (post-pandemic), there was a slow start,” Lucas said, “and we’re just trying to get those numbers up there again.”
John Raush, founder of Park Cinemas and a lifetime director with the Main Street Association, was ushering guests through the coffee line. He said he’s been volunteering at the breakfast since its inception to “give back to the community, help out and have fun. It’s enjoyable, everybody’s having a great time.”
Though Wiesinger said he has become more involved in the breakfast in recent years, including supplying the food and drinks from his restaurant, he emphasized the event is the epitome of a team effort among the volunteers, the sponsors, the Main Street Association and the fair — and it delivers on Moye’s pledge to spotlight downtown Paso Robles.
“I’m really proud of the fact that we have a small but mighty team,” Wiesinger said. “We have a great board of directors that is wanting to take Norma’s legacy and the mission of the Paso Main Street Association and just dial it up, really focus on community. I’m a small business owner myself, and it’s all about trying to bring attention to how great our downtown is, to support your local downtown restaurant or retail shops or just enjoy the park.”
Feature Image: (From left) Brie Henderson, Elissa K. Williams, and Ernie Ford from RE/MAX Success Realty in Paso Robles helped out at the 27th annual Paso Robles Main Street Association Pancake Breakfast on July 23. Photo by Rick Evans/PRP