IHOP, formerly known as The International House of Pancakes, is a United States–based restaurant chain that specializes in breakfast foods. It is owned by DineEquity, with 99% of the restaurants run by independent franchisees.[2]

While IHOP's focus is on breakfast foods such as pancakes, French toast, and omelettes, it also offers a menu of lunch and dinner items.

The appellation "International" has always referred to the fact that the chain offers different styles of pancake from around the world, although it had no actual international presence beyond its 1,500 locations across the Americas until August 2012, when it opened its first franchise in Dubai as part of a major expansion into the Middle East restaurant market.[3]

Jerry Lapin, Al Lapin, and Albert Kallis founded IHOP in 1958 with the help of Sherwood Rosenberg and William Kaye. The first restaurant opened on July 7, 1958, at 4301 Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California.[4] The location is coincidentally across North Rose Street from the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy restaurant, a California Point of Historical Interest. Albert Kallis was a professional artist who designed the film posters of American International Pictures in the 1950s. Director Bert I. Gordon recalled that Kallis designed their logo[5] and left poster artwork. The restaurant chain originally adopted the franchise-business model, where individual entrepreneurs, who were granted permission by the IHOP ownership group, could start up and run their own IHOP restaurant. For example, Benson Gidan, an in-law of Jerry and Al Lapin, owned and operated one of the busiest and most popular IHOP franchises in the 1970's, located Fairfax, California.

The original concept was a restaurant which featured various types of pancakes and similar foods such as crepes and blintzes from all over the world, offered at affordable prices. The chain was also notable (and still is to this day) for their syrups of several different flavors. The menu later expanded (especially in the 1980s) to include (along with breakfast foods) standard lunch and dinner items found in similar restaurant chains such as Denny's. IHOP was owned at one time by a parent holding company which also owned the Orange Julius refreshment stands seen in shopping malls, but was sold off by the mid-1970s.[6]

On July 16, 2007, IHOP Corp. stated its desire to acquire the bar-and-grill chain Applebee's International, Inc. in an all-cash transaction, valued at approximately US$3.1 billion. Under the deal, IHOP would pay $25.50 per share for Applebee's. IHOP stated it would franchise most of Applebee's 500 company-owned facilities. Applebee's had 1,943 restaurants worldwide at the time, including those operated by franchisees.[7]

With a larger than 70% vote, the company approved the takeover, which closed on November 29, 2007. The deal beat 26 other offers to purchase the economically slumping Applebee's. A number of executives from Applebee's voted against the offer. The chain's largest individual shareholder, Applebee's director Burton "Skip" Sack, stated he planned to take IHOP to court to demand a higher amount of money to be paid to him because the purchasing price that IHOP offered is unfair to the shareholders of Applebee's. As part of the purchase, a brand re-marketing scheme and revitalization of the Applebee's image was intended.[8] The takeover successfully closed on November 29, 2007,[9] and the corporate entity IHOP changed its name to DineEquity on May 28, 2008.[10]

In early September 2010, IHOP filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against International House of Prayer and six other defendants alleging trademark dilution and infringement.[11] The lawsuit was dropped on December 21, 2010, with the dispute resolved out of court.[12]