IHOP was founded by Jerry Lapin, Al Lapin, and Albert Kallis in 1958.  They also had help from Sherwood Rosenberg and William Kaye to help them open the first restaurants in Los Angeles, California in 1958.  They started to expand through franchising in 1960 and were publically traded by 1961.  They opened the 500th restaurant in 1991 and doubled to 1,000 restaurants by 2001.  In 2007, IHOP became the largest full service restaurant chain in the world when they purchased Applebee’s.  The company celebrated 50 years in business in 2008.  They are still publically traded and there are more than 1,500 IHOP locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and a few other areas.

Even though IHOP is most well-known for their pancakes and breakfast items they also serve lunch and dinner.  They do have a menu that offers breakfast all day long as well.  They are famous for their rooty tooty fresh and fruity pancakes, their funnel cakes, and many other breakfast dishes that they serve.  Nearly all of their breakfasts include a small stack of pancakes and they offer four flavors of syrup to top the pancakes as well.

IHOP is still expanding into new markets through their franchising program.  Franchisees are required to have at least $1.5 million in net worth and at least a half a million dollars in liquid assets.  They require all franchisees to be experienced restaurateurs and they have limited areas where they are trying to grow.  All new IHOP locations must be in freestanding buildings or end cap spaces that can seat approximately 185 people.  The population of the area must be at least 25,000 to 50,000 within 3 miles and 80,000 to 150,000 within 5 miles.  There has to be a large amount of traffic in the area and they prefer areas that have retail stores, offices, hospitals, and a working population around 10,000 people within just a few miles.