IHOP vs The Original Pancake House Franchise Comparison

The IHOP restaurant chain has been serving a wide variety of breakfast, lunch and dinner selections for more than 57 years. IHOP enjoys a rich heritage and almost universal awareness. Our brand has been built upon the strenght of our franchisees, vendors partners and dedicated employees. IHOP restaurants are franchised and operate by Glendale, California based IHOP Corp. There are over 1,280 IHOP restaurants in the U.S. and Canada.

The total investment necessary to begin operation of an IHOP franchise at a non-traditional venue is as follows:

• Full-Service Program: $693,266 to $3,374,043
• IHOP Limited-Service Program: $414,866 to $1,427,418

This includes Initial Fees of $39,000 to $79,480 per Full-Service Restaurant and $23,500 to $48,480 per IHOP Limited-Service Restaurant to be developed which must be paid to the Franchisor or an IHOP Affiliate.

The Original Pancake House was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1953 by Les Highet and Erma Hueneke. Drawing upon their many years of experience in the culinary field, and their extensive working knowledge of authentic national and ethnic pancake recipes they were able to offer without compromise their unique and original menu which has gained national acclaim. The Original Pancake House is a second and third generation family business, which takes great pride in maintaining the high standards that make our food so outstanding. We now have over one hundred franchises from coast to coast, which have won local and national acclaim. Our recipes demand only the very finest of ingredients, such as 93 score butter, pure 36% whipping cream, fresh grade AA eggs, hard wheat unbleached flour, and our own recipe sourdough starter. Our batters and sauces are made fresh in each restaurant’s kitchen. Our signature items include the Apple Pancake, a single large pancake smothered with sautéed apples and cinnamon sugar baked to perfection, to create a deliciously rich cinnamon sugar glaze.

The total investment necessary to begin operation of a The Original Pancake House® restaurant franchise is $372,500 to $966,250. This includes $60,303 to $60,606 that must be paid to the franchisor or an affiliate.

If you sign an option agreement with the franchisor to develop additional The Original Pancake House® restaurants, the franchisor will not charge you an additional fee, but they may require you to sign at least two franchise agreements at the same time that you sign the option agreement, in which case, you will pay to the franchisor $60,000 as the initial franchise fee under each franchise agreement you sign at the time you sign the option agreement. The minimum number of franchise agreements you must sign to acquire rights under an option agreement will depend on the size of your market, but will not be less than two franchise agreements.