Restaurants cautious during furor over trans fats.

Byline: Darrell Smith

SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ Scratched into a concrete slab behind the Pancake Circus restaurant near downtown Sacramento is the mantra that has been drawing customers for decades.

"Eat Pancakes. Good for U."

At the popular breakfast spot, customers sit down daily for a syrup-drenched taste of the place's signature dish.

"People have been coming here for 40-plus years for that taste," said restaurant owner Narem Muni, whose diner flips about 1,600 pancakes a day for customers.

The fluffy, golden hot cakes may taste good, but the oils they are cooked in aren't so good.

Trans fats _ the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils used in making pastries, pancakes and deep-fried foods like french fries and doughnuts _ have become the food world's Public Enemy No. 1 as city officials, lawmakers, dietitians and food chains nationwide seek to rid restaurant kitchens and menus of the artery-clogging fats.

"It's a big issue," said Judith Levine, a registered dietitian at the American Heart Association's San Francisco office. "Unfortunately, the effects of an unhealthy diet aren't in the short term, they're in the long term."

Unlike many other health-related trends that sweep the country, California is not leading this crusade, but…