This breakfast fundraiser was his baby. Now, it’s being put on in his memory.
Hotcakes for Hopecare was his baby, and every year, Joe Davidson could be found zipping around the dining room at Jimmie’s Diner, greeting customers and refilling trays of pancakes.
But this year’s breakfast buffet fundraiser at the restaurant, 3111 N. Rock Road, will be the first one without Davidson, who died in late December in a car accident. It’s also the 10th anniversary for the event, which features aproned politicians and local celebrities dishing up breakfast items. The event raises money for GraceMed.
So the organizers of the event have decided that it will double as a memorial for Davidson, the son of Jimmie’s Diner owners Jack and Linda Davidson. He was working as the operations manager for his parents’ two Wichita restaurants when he died.
The breakfast, which features an all-you-can-eat buffet of pancakes, fried apples, scrambled eggs, sausage and fresh fruit, runs from 6 to 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 23. Advance tickets are $15 online at www.gracemed.org/hotcakes or $20 at the door on Tuesday. Children under 12 can get tickets for $10.
Linda Davidson said her son always orchestrated all the details of the event on the restaurant’s end, and she and Jack have worked together this year to figure out how he did it.
A drawing of Joe’s smiling face decorates the publicity posters for the fundraiser. He was the most excited about the idea when GraceMed approached the restaurant about hosting the event a decade ago, Linda Davidson said.
The first installments of the buffet breakfast happened at the Jimmie’s Diner that used to operate at 21st and Tyler. But when the family closed that restaurant in 2018, they moved the breakfast to the Rock Road address.
Friends and fans of the restaurant pack the house every year, Linda Davidson said. In total, the breakfast has helped raise more than $300,000 for GraceMed, whose clinics serve uninsured adults and children in need of medical, dental, vision and pharmacy care.
The annual event is the only time each year that people can get the restaurant’s food buffet style. Jimmie’s Diner will serve only those with breakfast tickets through 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, then it will reopen at 10:30 a.m. and begin serving its regular menu.
Among the well-known Wichitans who will serve food during the breakfast on Tuesday: Wichita State University men’s basketball coach Paul Mills; all the members of the Wichita City Council plus mayor Lily Wu; all the members of the Sedgwick County commission; USD 259 superintendent Kelly Bielefeld; Wichita Riverfest Admiral Windwagon Smith Ron McEwen; and several Wichita media personalities.
People who don’t have time to dine in person can get food to go from a drive-through set up outside.
Linda Davidson said that she still sometimes struggles to talk about her son but knows people will want to express their condolences at the event.
“It’s going to be tough,” she said. “I’m not going to kid you.”
This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 2:50 PM.
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