Du-par’s, the restaurant and bakery founded in 1938 at the Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles, is now open at the Golden Gate Hotel in the historic area of Downtown Las Vegas. This is great news for anyone who loves American comfort foods such as meat loaf, fresh turkey and chicken pot pie, not to mention fresh pies, and world class hotcakes.

The restaurant was opened by Biff Naylor, son of the legendary Tiny Naylor, who had a chain of now vanished coffee shops of the same name in southern California. Tiny was one of the original 22 partners of Golden Gate. Biff built the kitchen for the Bay City Diner, today home to Du-par’s.

I had a long phone conversation with Naylor, during which time we reminisced about the great coffee shop culture of L.A., remembering places like Ships, which had a toaster on every table, Tick Tock, the great Hollywood coffee shop, Ben Frank’s, and his father’s own chain.

(Naylor, incidentally, a young seventy, is here often, and his daughter, Jennifer, is the chef.)

When we spoke, I told him that I had always considered Du-par’s the class of the L.A. coffee shop field, as much for the wonderful cinnamon rolls and donuts, as for the pancakes, hamburgers and incredible split pea soup, perhaps the best in the world. And so did Naylor, apparently. Because he eventually bought the company, mostly so he could get, in his own words, “their secret hotcake recipe.”

The President of the Golden Gate is Mark Brandenburg, whose stepdad, Italo Ghelli, was one of the original partners. Mr. Brandenburg joined me for some homemade soup and coffee when I last visited. He eats here almost every day.

“When Biff approached me with the idea of putting in a Du-par’s to replace Bay City Diner, the idea made good sense. “We didn’t want to put a large chain like Friday’s, so as not to lose our historic charm”, he said.

The one reservation he had was that the kitchen space might be inadequate for Du-par’s made from scratch preparations. The pancake batter, pie crusts and donuts are all made here, requiring the kind of space that most Vegas coffee shops do not. (The more pre-made food a restaurant buys, the less kitchen space it requires.)

“Don’t worry about the space,” Naylor told him. “I built that kitchen in 1964.” That information took Brandenburg by surprise, who agreed to the new arrangement almost immediately.

And indeed, the historic charm remains. The main dining area is filled with black and white framed photos of old Las Vegas, a literal gallery of them. Sit in the front, at booths across from the pie display, or at a long counter. The back room has red leatherette booths studded with brass buttons, and the waitresses, holdovers from the Bay City Diner, have their own, er, historic charms.

I can’t say enough about the food here. I must have eaten in Du-par’s over one hundred times during my 20-odd years in Los Angeles, and I always had the same thing when I visited, a cinnamon cake donut. Mr. Naylor says they will be available soon here, but for now, you’ll have to be content with a cinnamon roll that has a perfect sugar glaze, and the equivalent of an entire stick of pure butter in each roll.

As to the hotcakes, yes, they are now, officially, the best in Vegas, in place of the former winner, those at the Original Pancake House chain. Neither restaurant serves pure maple syrup with the hotcakes, but this place, at least, allows you the privilege of bringing in some.

What makes them so great? One, they are perfectly springy and fluffy. Two, they have a magical sourdough tang from a seven hour ferment. And three, they are doused with CLARIFIED butter, what Indian chefs call ghee. That gives them an incomparable richness. Naylor says that most of his customers tell him that they are the best hotcakes they’ve ever tasted. You tell me.

Forgive me if I wax rhapsodic about the pie crusts as well. No one told me, but I’m guessing that this crust uses a combination of butter and a vegetable shortening. The bottom line is, they taste like home cooking and not mass produced. No other local restaurant makes a pie crust as flaky or tender, without making it too salty.

And the pie list is awesome; ten traditional and fruit pies including green apple, gooseberry and pumpkin, and another ten fresh cream and specialty pies, ones like custard, coconut cream and Southern pecan. You may never eat another from Marie Callender’s.

Of course, not every customer is here to carb load. How about a little artery clogging? Their country fried steak uses USDA Prime beef from Harris Ranch in Central California, topped with cream gravy redolent of smoky sausage meat. This meatloaf is grainy and flavorful, but I’d like it better if the flavor of green bell pepper were less dominant.

Naylor is buying fresh turkey from Utah, never frozen, sliced to order on a pile of sage stuffing, doused in turkey gravy, and served with the best mashed potatoes and gravy around. House baked rye bread and hand formed hamburger meat turns into the only respectable old style patty melt available in Vegas. The one dish I’d do differently is chicken pot pie. This is a single, top crusted version, a tad stingy on the meat.

When you leave, grab a souvenir menu from 1938, which you can pick up by the front register.

Other than bygone dishes such as steak and kidney pie or lamb kidneys (which are still on the menu at Musso and Frank’s Grill on L.A.’s Hollywood Blvd., since 1919), it is remarkable how little things at Du-par’s have changed. (OK, split pea soup was only fifteen cents back then.)

“We’re really not doing anything so different,” said Naylor. “We’ve just gone back to things as they were.” Amen to that.

Du-par’s is in the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino, 1 Fremont Street. 385-1906.

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