Customers turn to tap water in restaurants

October 26, 2011 | By Mike Dempsey

Tap water is one of the fastest-growing beverage orders at U.S. restaurants, according to the NPD Group.

Meanwhile, sales of revenue-producing drinks are declining, the consumer research firm said.

A recent report by Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD found that tap water servings have increased by 2.8 billion servings since 2006. Tap water orders currently make up 8 percent of the 50 billion beverage servings ordered at restaurants, according to NPD’s Crest service, which continually tracks consumer behavior at restaurants.

Since 2006, total beverage servings excluding tap water have fallen by 6 percent, a decline of 2.7 billion servings, the report said. The study included a survey of 5,550 adults, 18 years and older.

The decline in beverage orders at restaurants is led by carbonated soft drinks and brewed coffee, which represent 49 percent of all beverage servings.

Consumers cited cost as a chief reason for not ordering carbonated soft drinks and other non-growth beverages.

“Although the economy and high unemployment are factors in tap water’s upswing and beverage servings declines, some beverages, like carbonated soft drinks, were declining prior to the recession,” said Bonnie Riggs, NPD restaurant industry analyst and author of the report.

The sale of iced tea, a longtime staple in restaurants, is increasing, while other growth categories tend to be newer beverages, such as smoothies and specialty coffee drinks.

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Mimi’s Café expands value positioning

New Mimi’s My Way 1-2-3 offer intends to boost dinner daypart and let customers retain choice

October 27, 2011 | By Mark Brandau

Mimi’s Café is extending its “Value Revolution” positioning with the debut of Mimi’s My Way 1-2-3.

The offer lets customers build a two- or three-course meal consisting of one full-price entrée with soup or salad for an additional $2, or a soup or salad with a Petite Dessert for an additional $3.

Two-course meal options include garden or Caesar salad or a cup of soup: café corn chowder, French onion, roasted tomato and basil bisque, or one of seven soups that change daily.

Petite Dessert options for the three-course meal include bread pudding, apple cinnamon crisp, a triple chocolate brownie or chocolate mousse.

“Our guests know and love us for a variety of dinner favorites,” said Mark Mears, president and chief concept officer of 145-unit Mimi’s Café. “We also know times are tight and that dining out at dinner has become more challenging in this economy. While other restaurants lure guests with meal deals that offer only limited selections of appetizers, entrees and dessert combinations, Mimi’s My Way 1-2-3 offers ultimate guest flexibility.”

Mimi’s My Way is just one value offering the chain has deployed to compete with other casual-dining discounts, like Chili’s and Applebee’s $20-for-two offers.

Earlier this year, Mimi’s rolled out Family Meals to Go, a menu of 10 meals for $25 that serve four to five people and intended to drive the chain’s carryout business. Mimi’s Café Express Lunch offers a soup and salad for $6.99, or a half sandwich and soup or salad for $8.49, delivered within 15 minutes.

Other value offers include $8 wine flights during happy hour and Seasonal Tour de France options, like a two-course lunch for $10.99 and a three-course dinner for $13.99.

The company initiated the “Value Revolution” to reverse falling same-store sales at Mimi’s Café. For the most recent first quarter of fiscal 2012, same-store sales fell 4.8 percent at Mimi’s, after declining 4.5 percent for all of fiscal 2011.

Irvine, Calif.-based Mimi’s is a subsidiary of Columbus, Ohio-based Bob Evans Farms Inc. Mimi’s Café restaurants are located in 24 states.

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Outback rolls out holiday steak promo

November 2, 2011 | By Lisa Jennings

Outback Steakhouse launched a new holiday promotion Wednesday that includes steak combinations with grilled shrimp, ribs and lobster tail.

Officials with Outback’s Tampa, Fla.-based parent OSI Restaurant Partners LLC, said the combination plates start at $11.99 and will be available through Jan. 17.

Options include herb-roasted prime rib paired with a lobster tail and served with a side salad; Outback’s signature sirloin paired with a skewer of grilled shrimp; or a six-ounce sirloin served with a half-rack of wood-fired grilled ribs. All are served with a dressed baked potato.

Also among the limited-time offers is a Gingerbread Cookie Martini, garnished with graham cracker crumbs and a gingerbread-man cookie.

The chain also is offering a holiday dessert: Oreo Cookies ‘n Cream Waffles, which include warm chocolate waffle cakes served with vanilla ice cream, cookie crumbs, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

In addition, Outback is offering guests a free $20 bonus card for every $100 gift card purchased from a restaurant or online. Gift cards are available in $10, $25, $50 and $100 increments, and can be used at more than 750 Outback locations nationwide.

The gift cards must be purchased before the end of the year, but the bonus cards can be redeemed between Jan. 1 through Feb. 10, 2012.

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Pies top 2011 restaurant trend list

Mini plates, fried vegetables among other trends, predicts consultancy group

October 21, 2010 | By Ron Ruggless

Pies, both sweet and savory, will be the top restaurant trend in 2011, a California consultancy predicts.

Andrew Freeman, whose Andrew Freeman & Co. of San Francisco consults on marketing for restaurants and hotels nationwide, detailed some top trends in a webinar Wednesday.

“If I had one trend — one trend — of the year that I could predict, that’s why it’s in the No. 1 position, this would be the trend for pie,” he said. “I think that we’re going to make room for pie shops in the next year.”

He said it follows on the heels of cupcake shops.

Freeman noted that Hill Country Chicken in New York City even sponsors a “Pie Happy Hour” to showcase its wide variety of pies from whiskey-buttermilk to apple-cheddar and more traditional banana and coconut cream pies.

“This is not just sweet pies, this is savory pies, bite-sized pies. They are even blended into milkshakes,” he said. “I’ll eat pie if I don’t get this one right at the end of the year.”

Other trends noted by Freeman included:

• The new mom and pop. Self-financed restaurants built on limited budgets are growing in number. “This is an economic decision,” he said. “There are a lot of people out there who still want to open up restaurants, and it’s a good opportunity to look at real estate in a down economy.” The restaurants are typically small and the owners are extremely involved. Some examples are eVe in Berkeley, Calif., and Sons & Daughters in San Francisco.

• One-ingredient restaurants. “Restaurateurs are taking one ingredient and building full restaurants around them,” Freeman said. Following on the several-year trend of gourmet burgers, the trend is extending to grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs and sliders. “We’re predicting perhaps a peanut butter restaurant next or a big biscuit restaurant,” he said.

• Mini plates.“Small plates were the big buzz word over the last couple of years,” Freeman said. “This year mini is the new buzz word. Mini everything: mini portions, mini desserts.” The reason, he said, is it fits into tighter budgets. “Everybody wants a little more of everything. Our sense of wanting to be satisfied and fulfilled and experience as much as possible is really, really key.”

• Multi-purpose spaces. Eataly in New York is an example. “We are going to see markets opening in the corners of restaurants,” he said.

• Minimal menus. “A couple of years ago, we found a lot of people were getting very wordy and descriptive in their jargon on their menus,” Freeman said. Eleven Madison Park in New York focuses on ingredients.

• Dirt. Abandoning sauces, some chefs are turning to dried, crumbled, powdered ingredients to add texture and flavor. Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark, offers radishes with toasted-malt “dirt.” Such a technique may be used by chef Dominique Crenn, who plans to open a restaurant in San Francisco in January.

• Hearth-healthy. Wood-fired ovens will be used to roast vegetables and larger cuts of meat and whole animals.

• Hot dogs and sausage shops. Examples include Brats Dogs & Wieners in New York. “They are moving from stands into restaurants,” Freeman said.

• Vegetables. “There are even restaurants that are going meatless Mondays,” Freeman said. “The reason is the celebration of gardens and farms and relationships with farmers.”

• Fried vegetables. Once-obscure vegetables are getting the crisp treatment with such items as fried Brussels sprouts, fried cauliflower and turnip chips.

• Soft-serve. Chefs are using soft-serve ice cream machines to produce savory flavors as well as more exotic flavors, such as the coconut-water soft serve with brownie bites at Belly Shack in Chicago.

• High-end junk food. “I feel like that munchies we grew up on are going to show up with interpretations done by chefs in really the most unique ways,” Freeman said, suggesting house-made Cheetos, Bugles, Slim Jims and jerky.

• Popsicles. Similar to the soft-serve trend, iced treats are showing up in flavors such as sugar-snap pea.

• Yogurt. It will show up as sun-dried, freeze-dried, smoked and pressed and in imported variations such as skyr from Iceland and labne from Lebanon.

• Swede inspiration. As a trend-influencing region, the Scandinavian countries are now invading U.S. menus.

• Breads. “Chefs are doing signature breads that they are serving as if they were a course,” Freeman said, citing the Popovers at Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco.

• Bellies. Goat and lamb belly are showing up on menus as pork-belly prices rise, producing such dishes as the lamb-belly watercress BLT at the Lonesome Dove in Fort Worth, Texas.

As far as popular ingredients go, Freeman suggests more influence by:

1) Neck. Lamb, beef, goat and pork neck.

2) Whey. In salads and sauces.

3) Kumquats. In salads, relishes and desserts.

4) Pimento cheese. Smooth, spreadable, spicy and nostalgic.

5) Smoking. Smoked olive oil, cumin and butter.

6) Hay. Used for roasting and smoking, such as the leeks roasted on hay at Castagna Restaurant in Portland, Ore.

7) Hummus. In sauces, spreads and ingredients.

8) Popcorn. In various courses, such as the popcorn ice cream at Carneros Bistro & Wine Bar in Sonoma, Calif.

9) Pretzels. Pretzel sticks and used as a crust, like in the pretzel-bit-covered crab cake at David Burke Townhouse in New York.

10) Honey. Chefs are developing partnerships with local beekeepers for use in sauces and dressings.

Read more: http://www.nrn.com/article/pies-top-2011-restaurant-trend-list#ixzz1cbxKFJdO

Chipotle to open Asian fast-casual concept

November 3, 2010 | By Lisa Jennings

Chipotle Mexican Grill founder Steve Ells said Wednesday he is developing an Asian fast-casual concept that he expects to debut in mid-2011.

Company officials were reluctant to give details on the plan, but said it would follow the Chipotle service format and its focus on “food with integrity” in ingredients, said spokesman Chris Arnold.

Arnold said the new concept will be similar in pricing to Chipotle, and that the restaurant will open in one of about 40 existing Chipotle markets. Denver-based Chipotle operates more than 1,000 restaurants nationwide.

Ells, who serves as Chipotle’s co-chief executive and chairman, said in a statement, “Since opening the first Chipotle some 17 years ago, I have often thought about how other types of food might fit the Chipotle model.

“Chipotle is not successful because we serve burritos and tacos,” he added. “Our success comes from finding the very best sustainably raised ingredients, prepared and cooked using classical methods in front of the customer, and served in an interactive format by special people dedicated to providing a great dining experience. And while our Chipotle restaurants will, of course, remain our primary focus, we are also excited to see how this format works with other cuisines.”

Analyst Sharon Zackfia with William Blair & Co. said the news was the “next logical evolution” of Chipotle.

“They have always been open to the idea that their Food with Integrity model is not specific to Mexican cuisine,” she said. “And Asian in general is one of the fastest-growing categories in the U.S., though it’s very fragmented.”

Other Asian fast-casual concepts include the 168-unit Pei Wei Asian Diner brand, owned by P.F. Chang¹s China Bistro Inc.; the 90-unit Pick Up Stix chain owned by Carlson Restaurants Worldwide; and the Flat Top Grill and Stir Crazy brands owned by Chicago-based Flat Out Crazy Restaurant Group, which operates about 28 locations of the two brands combined.

Chipotle’s new Asian concept, however, will no doubt get an initial lift because consumers are already so connected to the company’s core brand, said Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president of foodservice strategies at consulting firm WD Partners.

The format also works well in terms of speed of service, customer engagement, and customization — as well as greatly reducing problems with order accuracy as guests are part of the food preparation process, he said.

“Using the Chipotle service model for an Asian concept and having Chipotle do it will give them incredible credibility,” Lombardi said.

Read more: http://www.nrn.com/article/chipotle-open-asian-fast-casual-concept#ixzz1cbwibPqi

How McDonald’s uses social media to connect

October 15, 2010 | By Ron Ruggless

Rick Wion, director of social media for McDonald’s Corp., says social media avenues, such as Twitter, allow big corporations the opportunity to make the restaurant experience warmer and more intimate.

“It’s really not about how many people are following you,” Wion said. “It’s about the level of engagement, really the strong connections you are making with customers.”

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VIDEO: Nation’s Restaurant News spoke with Wion last week after his presentation to the National Restaurant Association Marketing Executives Group fall gathering in Scottsdale, Ariz. Wion discusses how McDonald’s operates its Twitter feed, social media and franchisees, as well as keeping your legal department in the loop.

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McDonald’s staffs its Twitter account with four or five executives from its communications department and three people from the customer satisfaction department, Wion said. They help McDonald’s take the “restaurant experience beyond [the] doors.”

“You can really get out there and build these relationships,” he said.

“What you need to do is look at [social media followers] as your customers, because they are,” he said. “You need to give them all that same warm hospitality and all the great care you would if they were inside your restaurants.”

Read more: http://www.nrn.com/article/mcdonalds-talks-about-twitter-social-media#ixzz1cbvUdZcM

Consumers rank favorite restaurant chains – The Cheesecake Factory is Number 1!

Best brands focus most on experience, convenience

August 4, 2010 | By Mark Brandau

The nation’s most popular casual-dining chains — including The Cheesecake Factory, which was the runaway favorite in a recent customer survey — will stand to benefit from more optimistic consumer sentiment if they focus on the experience provided, convenience and food quality.

According to a Market Force survey, a customer experience management firm based in Boulder, Colo., one in four consumers plans to eat out more in the coming months and they are driven to brands showcasing strong customer service elements. The survey, which was conducted in May and June and is based on results from 5,000 of the firm’s 300,000 independent mystery shoppers, found that 8 percent of respondents said they planned to cut back on restaurant spending. Just six months ago, a similar survey from the same firm found that half of the respondents said they would eat out less.

As consumers plan to eat out more, the way to entice guests is to take care of the essential customer service elements, Market Force said. Of the consumers polled in the latest survey, 52 percent said they eat at casual- or family-dining restaurants just to have time with family and friends, and 37 percent cited celebrating special occasions as a reason to visit.

Convenience also plays into dining decisions, as 41 percent of respondents said they eat at casual and family chains when they are too tired to cook, and 23 percent said they go when they’re pressed for time. But 38 percent said a key reason for dining out is because they want a great-tasting meal, meaning food quality can’t be ignored, Market Force said. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

	Favorite casual and family restaurant chains
	Weighted by number of locations
Rank	Brand	Percent respondents
1	The Cheesecake Factory	13%
2	Texas Roadhouse	8%
3	Red Robin Gourmet Burgers	8%
4	Olive Garden	5%
5	Ruby Tuesday	5%
6	Red Lobster	4%
7	P.F. Chang’s China Bistro	4%
8	Longhorn Steakhouse	3%
9	Outback Steakhouse	3%
10	Cracker Barrel	2%
11	T.G.I. Friday’s	2%
12	Golden Corral	2%
13	Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar	2%
14	Chili’s	2%
15	IHOP	1%
Source: Market Force Information survey based on 5,000 mystery shoppers, May-June 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the casual-dining chains that survey respondents identified as a clear No. 1 favorite brand was The Cheesecake Factory, which earned 6 percent of the favorite-restaurant vote from consumers and scored a category best 13 percent of respondent votes when the votes were indexed to the number of locations for each chain.

The Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based brand also scored the highest rankings in six out of 10 characteristic ratings of the more than 60 restaurants included in the survey. Ratings were granted against characteristics including food taste and quality, atmosphere, and cleanliness. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, which placed second in the favorite-restaurant vote, when indexed to system size, scored the highest for kid friendliness and speed of service, the survey said.

Based on system size, Texas Roadhouse also had an 8-percent favorite vote among respondents, while Olive Garden and Ruby Tuesday followed with 5 percent and Red Lobster and P.F. Chang’s came next with 4 percent of the vote. The highest-scoring family-dining chains by that metric were Golden Corral and Cracker Barrel.

By total number of favorite votes, Olive Garden and Applebee’s led the way with 9 percent of all votes, while Red Lobster garnered 7 percent of all tallies. Texas Roadhouse, Cheesecake Factory, Chili’s and Outback Steakhouse came next with 6 percent of the vote. Cracker Barrel was the most popular family chain by total number of votes, at 4 percent.

Market Force also found that, while 72 percent of respondents said they visited a casual-dining or family restaurant for dinner, another 24 percent visited a dinnerhouse for a snack, compared with 3 percent for breakfast and 1 percent for lunch.

Several chains have recently announced menu development moves to capitalize on those opportunities at lunch and at snack time. Segment standout Buffalo Wild Wings, for example, talked up its late-night menu, with shareable $3 appetizers, as a sales driver in a recent earnings conference call. The chain also disclosed that it will test an express-lunch option in a little more than 60 locations as a way to build mid-day sales.

Several bar and grill chains have had some form of an express lunch for some time, as at Chili’s where the Bottomless Express Lunch combines soup and salad with unlimited chips and salsa, similar to Olive Garden’s unlimited servings of the Soup, Salad and Breadsticks Lunch. Chili’s also is testing a reduced-price menu of appetizers and bites after 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday.

The Cheesecake Factory, long known for its giant entrée portions, also diversified its menu slightly in the past few years to include a Small Bites and Snacks lineup to grow sales at off-peak times.

Market Force said the 5,000 respondents to the May and June survey ranged in age from 18 to 72 years old. More than 60 percent reported income levels of more than $50,000 per year, and half said they have children at home. Seventy-six percent of the consumers surveyed were women.

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A glimpse at Taco Bell breakfast

June 29, 2010 | By Mark Brandau

Taco Bell won’t be the first chain to mine the morning daypart for sales growth, but at least one analyst has said breakfast could propel the fortunes of the country’s largest quick-service Mexican brand and its parent company, Yum! Brands Inc.

Irvine, Calif.-based Taco Bell has tested breakfast before, but now the chain is expected to introduce a permanent menu for the morning daypart at its 5,600 restaurants in the United States some time in late 2011 or 2012.

Quick-service competition for breakfast is fierce, with Subway the latest brand to debut a breakfast platform taking on early risers McDonald’s and Burger King. But analyst Mark Kalinowski of Janney Montgomery Scott Capital Markets in New York said Taco Bell’s positioning as the segment’s largest Mexican brand, and its market leadership in value pricing, have it poised to capitalize on the morning meal.

“Obviously, a nationwide breakfast launch is not assured of rousing success — just ask Wendy’s,” Kalinowski wrote in a research note Tuesday. “Nevertheless, the long-term opportunity for Taco Bell is so large, and Taco Bell’s differentiated brand positioning [is] such a potential help, that over the long run we believe that Taco Bell will get it right, creating value for shareholders in the process.”

Kalinowski’s observations came following the tour of a Taco Bell location serving breakfast in Tucson, Ariz., one of only a few test markets.

“Over the last 20 years, when Taco Bell has previously tested breakfast, it emphasized a higher flavor profile and/or food quantity,” Kalinowski wrote. “With this test, though, value, including value pricing, seems paramount.”

Kalinowski holds a Buy rating on Yum Brands and Janney Montgomery does seek investment banking business with the Louisville, Ky.-based company. Kalinowski does not personally hold any shares of Yum Brands.

Several menu strategies are in play with Taco Bell’s offerings, including:

• Mid-priced, portable foods, like the Double Ham & Cheddar Melt for $1.79 and the Sausage Skillet or Sausage Skillet Burrito, both for $2.79.

• Value-priced items, like the Potato & Cheese Roll-up for 79 cents, three varieties of Classic Breakfast Burritos for 89 cents and a Hash Brown for 99 cents. These offerings closely mirror the 79-, 89- and 99-cent items on Taco Bell’s “Why Pay More?” menu. Kalinowski noted that the value items are displayed most prominently of any products on the breakfast menu.

• Products created with partner brands, like Cinnabon Delights for $1.49, a Morning Wrap and Morning Biscuit, both made with Jimmy Dean sausages, selling for $1.79, and Seattle’s Best Coffee, available in a regular size for 99 cents and a large size for $1.49.

• Four different combo meals for $4 each.

The analyst shared in his research note that, while Taco Bell has tinkered with breakfast offerings before, the new menu in test has performed well. Management had shared with Kalinowski that some Taco Bells in California had been serving a hold-over breakfast menu introduced years ago, and that when the new menu was introduced, breakfast sales increased about 60 percent on average.

McDonald’s and Burger King, both of which entered breakfast in the 1970s, generate about 25 percent and 14 percent, respectively, of their domestic sales from breakfast. Burger King and Subway both have tapped Seattle’s Best to upgrade their brewed coffee, while McDonald’s continues to bolster its McCafé line of espresso-based premium coffee.

Taco Bell management told Kalinowski that the chain would complete the national rollout of breakfast if the daypart proves able to add at least $65,000 to $70,000 in annual sales per unit, the analyst noted.

“In the short run following this anticipated launch, we look for breakfast to represent a low-to-mid single-digit percentage of sales for the Taco Bell brand in the U.S.,” he wrote. “However, over the long run, breakfast has rather large potential for the foremost quick-service Mexican brand.”

According to Nation’s Restaurant News’ most recent Top 100 census, Taco Bell had estimated systemwide sales of $6.8 billion in the United States in fiscal 2009.

Read more: http://www.nrn.com/article/glimpse-taco-bell-breakfast#ixzz1cbuAM6Zh

Denny’s eyes higher food costs, price hikes

November 2, 2011 | By Alan J. Liddle

Denny’s Corp. executives said they will need to raise menu prices to counter inflation pressures in a call with analysts discussing third-quarter earnings.

Company officials remain cautiously optimistic on the chain’s current strategy of blending everyday value propositions and compelling limited-time offers, and said those methods will continue to help build sales.

The Spartanburg, S.C.-based operator, franchisor and licensor of 1,677 family-dining restaurants said net income fell 19.2 percent to $8 million, or 8 cents per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 28, compared with $9.9 million, or 10 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

Quarterly same-store sales increased 1.1 percent at company-owned restaurants and 0.8 percent at franchised and licensed locations, compared with the prior year, Denny’s said. Corporate revenue fell 2.3 percent to $136.7 million on lower company-store sales from refranchising and lower franchising income compared with the prior year, when a conversion deal with Pilot Flying J Travel Centers brought in additional dollars not available in the latest quarter.

Inflation challenges

John Miller, president and chief executive of Denny’s Corp., said the company’s third quarter results reflect how the chain is “overcoming what remains a fairly challenging consumer economic environment, as well as inflation pressures impacting both our business and customers’ wallets.”

“Our success is being achieved with consistent brand execution leveraging our three primary marketing strategies of delivering every day affordability, creating compelling limited time only product offerings and deriving sales beyond breakfast,” he said.

 

IHOP debuts holiday-themed pancakes

November 2, 2011 | By Ron Ruggless

IHOP is stacking its Holiday Hotcakes in such seasonal flavors as eggnog, spiced pumpkin and peppermint from now through Jan. 1.

Pricing for the limited-time offer pancakes starts at $4.99.

The Holiday Hotcakes are available à la carte or in combinations with two eggs, hash browns and a choice of bacon, pork sausage or ham.

Flavors include:

Eggnog: Pancakes with nutmeg, cinnamon, whipped topping, cinnamon sugar and a butter-rum sauce

White Chocolate Chip Mint: Buttermilk pancakes filled with white chocolate chips and dressed with crunchy peppermint flakes and whipped topping

Pumpkin Praline: Pancakes made with real pumpkin, dressed with praline-glazed pecans, caramel sauce and whipped topping

IHOP also is featuring a “Simple & Fit” pumpkin pancake combo containing fewer than 600 calories. It features two pumpkin pancakes, scrambled egg substitute and two strips of turkey bacon.

“Our chefs have creatively captured the delicious, iconic holiday flavors, marrying them with IHOP’s signature pancakes for delightful combinations,” said Natalia Franco, IHOP senior vice president of marketing, in a statement.

The International House of Pancakes LLC, a division of Glendale, Calif.-based Dine Equity Inc., has more than 1,520 restaurants in the United States and Canada, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Read more: http://www.nrn.com/article/ihop-debuts-holiday-themed-pancakes?ad=marketing#ixzz1cbw3sG6z