The recipe for Ernie’s potato cakes
The Roanoke Times | File photo.
The closing of Ernie’s Bar & Grill in downtown Roanoke has left some folks wondering where they are going to find the famous potato cakes served there.
A reader left a comment on this blog saying she thought the newspaper had printed it before. She asked whether I could dig it up.
Thanks to good archiving and the tenacity of my predecessor, Beth Macy, who coaxed this out of original Ernie’s owner Ernie Arthur, I now present the recipe.
It was originally published in June 1990.
This recipe calls for pancake batter, but I do not know what kind. It must be a packaged mix as opposed to a homemade batter because Ernie references directions on the box.
If I make these, I’ll probably start out with Aunt Jemima or Bisquick brand since they seem to be the top two brands on store shelves.
Ernie’s Potato Cakes
Makes 4 cakes
2 fist-sized potatoes, boiled or microwaved until soft, cut in small cubes
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 to 5 Tbsps. melted butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups pancake batter (mixed up slightly thinner with milk than the directions on the box instruct)
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Mix up all the ingredients. Make sure you use enough pre-mixed pancake batter so that the overall mixture is fairly wet (“Don’t be stingy with it,” Ernie advises).
2. Fry as you would a regular pancake in butter or oil.
3. Slather the ketchup and serve.
January 31, 2013 - 5:02 PM
RSS feed 
Sounds nasty. Just sayin’.
Lindsey, I’m so glad you found this! It took me MONTHS to get this out of him, as I recall. He ended up giving me the tail end of this huge vat of orange cooking oil that he swore was the real secret to making good potato cakes, and I carried it around in the back of my VW Jetta for weeks before throwing it out (it had turned rancid by then) and using Canola oil instead — and they were fine!
Cheers to a great man. I hope he’s doing well!
Judging from the taste it seems to me there must be some bacon grease in there too. I imagine you could substitute a little of that with the butter.
I never had the potato cakes at Ernie’s, but my mom use to make them from left over mashed potatos when I was a kid, and I’ve missed them over the years. They were so good we would always want to have some mashed potatos left over just so she would make them. I’m gluten free, but Bisquick now makea a gluten free version which I have used several times so I think I will try this with the GF Bisquick I have and see how it comes out. Thank you for digging this up and sharing!
The Dogwood Restaurant in Vinton has them. The owners had Ernie’s several years ago, same food items plus much more.
I’ve used Aunt Jemima Complete pancake mix for these, use milk instead of water. Yummy!
And I mash the potatoes so there are no chunks.
With all the hoohaw about these potato cakes, I was expecting something more interesting. They are otherwise known as latke.
We made these for years from this recipe. A little Chinese 5 spice or some garlic is ok in these as well!
Potato latkes are good !
@Beth, you deserve the credit for originally getting this recipe from Ernie. All I had to do was run a search! So thanks!
@Eric, I’d be willing to bet there is still some little secret to this recipe that isn’t contained in the instructions, even if Ernie would not have thought of it as a secret. The type of pancake batter, the exact consistency of the batter, etc. It seems like when someone makes something you love, it is hard to exactly replicate it even if you watch them make it!
@Kristen, latkes don’t have pancake batter. That’s the major difference, and it would come out less like a hash brown patty, which is what latkes taste like to me.
Actually, I think the thinner you make the batter the better they are!
Susan, my mom made potato cakes out of left-over mashed potatoes too! I always make more mashed potatoes to this day so I can make the “tater cakes”…
I’d pay big money if he could tell me exactly how he seasoned, made and cooked his hamburgers at the Boiler Room. I’ve had very, very few that compare. You had to eat them all hunched over the counter or you would ruin your shirt from all the juice running out of them. Great memories….
Susan, my mom used to make potato cakes the same way. They were always so good!
Kim that’s a great way to use up leftover mashed. That or the top of a shepherds pie.
Pshaw, I always had Beth Macy pegged as an olive-oil gal!
My mom always used fresh grated potatoes and onion, added an egg and enough flour to hold it together, some salt, and dropped by spoonfuls in hot oil til they were brown. That and some applesauce; oh yeah!
I feel your pain Shubb…….there was just something special about a cheeseburger with egg, and LTM and thick sliced onion on a kaiser roll cooked by Ernie at the Boiler Room……..
Maybe Ernie should write a cookbook!