The International House of Pancakes or Ihop as its more commonly known, has made a bid of over $2 million for the Applebee’s restaurant chain. Ihop had in February said that it was looking to buy a chain that wasn’t a competitor. The pancake and coffee chain has 1,300 restaurants as compared to Applebee’s 1,900 locations. Applebee’s started off with a bang, but has been in decline for the past few years, while it’s competitors such as Olive Garden and Red Lobster zoomed ahead with growth rates of 86%.
I do hope Applebees can come back up since it was one of my favorite places to eat when I was in college and when I lived in Merriam, KS, a suburb of Kansas City which was right next to Overland Park, KS where Applebee’s is headquartered. I loved their restaurant on 95th St near the mall and my favorite order was the fried chicken salad.
