IHOP: 17 Facts About The Pancake Palace

Any IHOP connoisseur will appreciate a bit of ancient IHOP history, so let's talk about that very first location. According to the Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce, they weren't just the home of Warner Brothers, Amelia Earhart, and, at one time, saber-toothed tigers, they were also the home of the first IHOP. It opened in 1958, and even though it's a joint called Mo's now, there's another bit of fascinating history standing at that particular corner. It's right across the street from the country's oldest Big Boy, which opened in 1949 — making that intersection home to a special bit of Americana.

It might seem like there's a special day for everything, but IHOP's National Pancake Day is something we can all get behind. They started making March 7 something special in 2006, and the idea isn't to recognize the humble pancake, it's to raise some serious money for charity. IHOP partnered with Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, Shriners Hospitals for Children, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for the day, asking their guests to make a donation to any one of the charities instead of paying the standard purchase price for a short stack of pancakes.

They're not talking about small change, either. In 2017, the chain estimated that it would be serving 5 million pancakes and raising about $3.5 million for charity, which would be added onto its already impressive total of more than $24 million they've raised for some great causes.

Living next to an IHOP would be horrible for your waistline and for your heart, but one Manhattan neighborhood has found out the hard way there's another problem: the smell. In 2012, a feud began brewing between an East Village IHOP and its neighbors. People living in the area complained that the smell of bacon grease was so bad it was disrupting their sleep, and honestly, can you think of anything worse than the constant smell of bacon that's not going to be eaten by you?

IHOP tried to appease them by installing a $40,000 machine on top of the building. The so-called smog-hog was designed to remove all odors before they had a chance to escape, and it sounds like a good plan, right? The feud didn't go away, though, and it wasn't long before those same neighbors were now complaining because IHOP's smog-hog was all but deafening. Sometimes, there's just no winning.

IHOP was founded by entrepreneur Al Lapin, Jr., who died in 2004. Lapin decided to open IHOP after being inspired by the success other fast food joints were having in the 1950s, and after he decided to go with pancakes and waffles, he developed the iconic look of his restaurants. That distinctive blue roof was actually chosen because of a similarity to the instantly recognizable orange roofs of the popular Howard Johnson's chain, and that chalet-style building has a purpose, too. Lapin wanted his restaurants to have the appearance of a place you could go that would be every bit as welcoming and cozy as your own home, another brilliant marketing strategy from the man who always said his favorite pancakes were "the ones that sell."

It's always inspiring to see a business going above and beyond for its customers, and that's exactly what IHOP franchisee Tommy Tsitouris of Morgantown, West Virginia did for one of his 5-year-old customers. When Leah DeBarr's parents took her to IHOP after a particularly painful (and shot-filled) doctor's visit, they found her favorites were no longer on the menu. They couldn't get Cinn-A-Stack pancakes anymore, but when Tsitouris and IHOP got wind of the little girl's heartbreak, they not only held a Cinn-A-Stack-filled surprise party for her, but they put the pancakes back on the menu, albeit for a limited time. Still, that's some serious customer service!

There aren't too many restaurants that can say they've made a major contribution to the scientific community, but IHOP has — and it's hilarious. Anyone who's driven across the American Midwest knows why the saying developed that it's as flat as a pancake, but is it really? That's what Texas State and Arizona State University researchers wanted to know, and their study was published in the Annals of Improbable Research in 2003.

They took an IHOP pancake, did some adjusting for size, and compared it to the topography of Kansas. The results? Yes, Kansas is absolutely flatter than a pancake. That wasn't enough of a result, though. In 2014, University of Kansas researchers replied that there are actually six states that are flatter than an IHOP pancake: Florida, Illinois, North Dakota, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Delaware. They also determined that in order to be statistically less flat than a pancake, Kansas would need to have a mountain higher than Mount Everest. Who says science is boring?

Going out to eat is always a bit of a challenge if you're vegan, and in many places, you're not so much checking the menu for what you want to eat, but for what you can eat. IHOP has you covered, though: there is plenty you can choose off the menu if you're vegan.

Go for things like butter-free hash browns, baked potato, fruit, and flavored coffee, but there are less obvious things, too. Their fries, oatmeal, and English muffins are vegan, and you can absolutely ask for an egg- and cheese-free omelet to get a plate piled high with roasted veggies. That's a win for those who aren't even vegan!

If you had to describe IHOP to a friend — a friend who's been living in a cave on a rocky island off the coast of Newfoundland, perhaps — you'd probably say "they serve pancakes." Let's face it: "pancakes" really aren't a super unique selling point. You can get pancakes at any greasy spoon in America, or even out of a box of grocery store pancake mix.

Prior to 2014, when you opened up an IHOP menu, what you saw was pancakes, pancakes, and more pancakes — and how exactly does one choose between pancakes and pancakes? IHOP tackled this problem not by adding non-pancake menu items, but by redesigning the menu and how it presented all those pancakes to customers. In the new design, each pancake option had its own photo and description. Instead of reading through the "War and Peace" of breakfast combo options, you could just add a "side" of whatever you wanted. IHOPs most popular combos got glamor shots at the bottom of the page. The menu featured fewer items, too, so customers wouldn't be overwhelmed with choices.

So how did that work out? Well, for a surprisingly simple change, it was shockingly effective. The move fueled a 4% increase in sales. That doesn't sound like a lot but, when you make $18 million a year, it's a pretty significant amount of pocket change.

Back in 2018, IHOP announced that it was planning to change its name to IHOB, but didn't say why. All across America, people were like, "Huh?" IHOP let this go on for a week before finally announcing that the "B" stands for "burgers," and it wouldn't actually be changing its name. It turns out that the weird IHOB tease was really meant to remind people that it sells burgers and is open for lunch and dinner.

So how'd that work out? Well, perhaps no other campaign in the history of marketing has inspired such collective confusion. Some analysts crowed that the attempt was a failure since it left IHOP open to ridicule from random people, celebrities, and real burger joints like Wendy's and Burger King (the latter created a temporary "Pancake King" logo to Tweet-scoff IHOP's name change). 

But really, IHOP had the last laugh. The following year, the company's chief marketing officer announced that the name change had fueled a whopping 400% increase in burger sales — so, "Pancake King," how many pancakes did you sell? In fact, at one point the company was selling half a million burgers a week, which doesn't exactly sound like failure. Since this followed 10 straight quarters of declining sales, it seems as if IHOP's odd campaign did exactly what it was supposed to do.