IHOb? AYFKM?
Are you fishing kidding me? What fresh rottenness is this?
IHOP is hinting that a big change is coming — with just the small flip of a letter.
The pancake chain, in a tweet Monday morning, suggested that it would change its name from “IHOP” to “IHOb” starting June 11.
That’s right. It’s not a typo, although the company has not disclosed the meaning of the new acronym.
“We’re serious about the quality of food and our menu, and this name change really reflects that,” says Stephanie Peterson, IHOP’s executive director of communications.
Founded in suburban Los Angeles by Al and Jerry Lapin in 1958, the International House of Pancakes shortened its name to IHOP in 1973, according to the company’s website. Now, 45 years later, IHOP appears to be heading for another tweak.
This kind of bums me out. I have a lot of very fond memories of IHOP. Being the place that was always open made it really convenient. Now… well it’s still there I guess. It just has a dumb name.
Oh, well, at least it’s not Denny’s.
1. I predict the “rebrand” will last approximately a week
2. I guess “International House of Stupid Marketing Decisions” was already taken
3. I suppose outlets vary, but I’ve never eaten at an IHOP that was….good. At best they’re mediocre – road-food for when you’re unwilling to take a chance on “Rosalita’s Tex-Mex” or “Ma’s Diner.” Because Ma’s Diner might be great, or it might be so terrible you wished you’d gone to IHOP, or even McDonald’s, instead. (And you can’t always tell by the number of in-state license plates at a place, no matter what my dad used to say about roadfood)Report
I have very fond memories of IHOP. When I was twelve we went to the US for a holiday. There were a lot of breakfasts which we had at the various IHOPs as we drove from Florida to California. its somewhat sad that it never really got international. Same way its deeply unfortunate that you cant really get chicago style deep dish pizzas outside of the US (and maybe sicily).
Im pretty sure IHOb stands for International house of breakfast.Report
Years ago, when fast food places were still rare in the Midwest outside of the bigger cities, my father traveled Nebraska and parts of Iowa and Minnesota doing field audits and safety inspections for an insurance company. He had a list of pretty much every decent place to eat in all of the small towns. When it got to summer and people in the office were taking off on driving vacations, his list was quite popular, as people wanted at least the first day’s meals to be good.Report
Jane and Michael Stern also got low-level famous for publishing books of undiscovered-gem restaurants back in the 1980s.
My dad was always big on stopping at local places. I remember some of them were extremely good and others were terrible, like, “I would rather go hungry for the next twelve hours than eat what I ordered” terrible. On regular routes we took (to relatives) we figured out what and where the good places were and planned stops at them.Report
IHOb…bq?Report
International House of breaky? (but what about din-dins?)Report
We are now in the era of all day breakfastsReport
All hail the breakfast gods, lords of my expanding belly!Report
Somewhere some media manager in their organization is counting it as a win that we are talking about them.
And I’m not even sure they are wrongReport
No, they’re probably not wrong. But it doesn’t make me any more likely to eat there, so I’m not sure how far the win goes. (I suppose it comes down to, “Does it make more people go eat there?”)Report
Agreed. And they’re going to have to print up new menus and signs and all that. It’s not like it’s free.
I have so many fond memories of going there in my childhood, but I went there some ten-ish years ago and couldn’t believe how bad it seemed to be. I wonder if it was always that way or if my tastes changed. Probably the latter because I used to love the Olive Garden tooReport
They’ll use stickers on the menus. Stickers that can be peeled off when the inevitable “ha ha we were just kidding about the name change” media-thing drops.
I ate at them a FEW times when I was a kid, and yeah, I remember them being better than they are now. But (a) I was a kid and (b) all I ordered was one of the goofy pancake things (and the different syrup flavors where an attraction). Now that I’m an adult and have to actually watch what I eat….well, the other menu offerings are not that great and frankly I can even make better pancakes at home.Report
Has anyone said “booty” yet?Report
Bagels. International House of Bagels.
They can serve The Italian Bagel the Mexican bagel, the Swiss Bagel…Report
Maybe they’re banking on “insect food” as the next big trend, and it’s really International House of Bugs.
(And yes, I know: there is a certain amount of insect parts allowable in flour according to Federal standards. I try not to think about it)Report