Hungry customers queue 50-deep as Sunderland tearoom Love Lily sells 1,500 pancakes on Shrove Tuesday

There were continuous queues outside Love Lily Tearoom in Roker yesterday, February 25, which at their peak were 50 people deep, with customers eager to tuck into the seafront business’s colourful collection of pancakes.

In its three years of business, pancakes have become the tearoom’s most popular dish and for Pancake Day they devoted their whole menu to American-style buttermilk pancake stacks, doing 386 covers and flipping just over 1,500 pancakes in 11 hours.

As well as the regular toppings of maple syrup and bacon and Nutella and strawberries, diners could choose from a special Pancake Day menu of toppings suggested by the tearoom’s regulars, which included options including Tex Mex, Lindt and Reece’s Peanut Butter overload.

Head chef Natalie Lister is nursing a sore wrist today, but says it was worth it.

“We extended our opening hours until 8pm for Pancake Day and people were even sitting outside in the dark,” she explained. “We did 123 covers last Pancake Day, but decided to just do pancakes this year and it definitely proved our biggest day of trading ever.”

Natalie honed her pancake skills in her previous role at the popular Flat White Kitchen in Durham City before bringing hand-made American-style stacks to Love Lily, which is owned by sisters Helena and Gemma Ganley.

The businesswomen, who named the business after their grandma, also have a bakery in Pallion where all the cakes are made for the Roker site.

The pretty tearoom, which has a maximum of 28 covers at a time, has built up a loyal following on Facebook and Instagram and also regularly has queues of people waiting for it to open at weekends.

Natalie said: “We don’t do reservations, but we never turn people away. We always explain there will be a wait, but people say it’s worth it, which is so satisfying to hear. It’s not often you see queues outside of businesses and it makes us so proud.”

The tearoom will be extending its opening hours to meet demand and will soon be open until 5pm.

See more of the Love Lily menu here.