Are you looking for family style restaurants? There are many of them in the United States of America serving different types of theme. But for the purpose of this article, we are focusing on select top ranked family style restaurants in term of revenue and their geographical spread. It will interest you to know that the family style restaurants listed below have more than 8,000 units put together. With this number of units, I believe that it should not be difficult for you to locate a place where you can enjoy especially if good meal with your family.
Top Family Style Restaurants in USA
IHOP
IHOP (International House of Pancakes) is a global house / diner-style chain of righteousness specializing in pancakes and burgers. It centers on breakfast meals. However, it also provides a menu of lunch and dinner items. The company offers French toasts, combos, crepes, waffles, omelets, pancakes, appetizers, steak burgers, sandwiches, starters, beverages, salads, and desserts. The restaurants were previously known as the International House of Pancakes and are instantly recognizable due to its A-frame design.
The vision of IHOP is to be the number one in family dining. But being number one requires being the best in class and dominating the industry on all fronts-including growth, operations, and marketing-to yield superior system-wide revenue and comparable restaurant sales growth. Becoming number one needs good leadership, shareholder support, and the dedication of the franchisor and staff. It requires a sincere desire to welcome progress, rethinks processes, encourages creativity, and inspire excitement. And IHOP has all the required commitment and dedication.
IHOP Company owns and franchises the International House of Pancakes’ restaurant concept in the US and Canada. By concentrating on franchises and a long-term program of unit improvements and menu diversification, IHOP changed itself from a struggling chain of pancake houses to a three-meal-occasion family dining empire in the 1980s and early 1990s.
IHOP is one of those companies responsible for the widespread and availability of cheap full-service family dining. The corporation is currently the third-largest family-style dining chains, after Denny’s Corporation and Waffle House Inc. In 2003, more than 1,136 International House of Pancakes restaurants in 48 states and Canada were included in the IHOP system. Every year, IHOP restaurants deliver over 700 million pancakes, 20 million pounds of breakfast meat, and more than 300 million cups of coffee.
The hospitality of IHOP makes customers see their table as their family table. Customers can create new memories and enjoy their favorite meal with their famous people. IHOP is delighted to serve its customers.
After years of the company’s slow transformation and reinvesting its earnings in further developments, IHOP and its stock began to grow. Suddenly, financial experts took notice, hailing the company as overnight success with a gold mine promise. Forbes magazine ranked IHOP 102 out of 200 of the best small businesses in the United States, one of only three foodservice firms to be listed. Analysts expected massive gains in market value, some as high as 60 percent.
By 1995, IHOP opened more than 50 new restaurants each year in the United States, Canada, with Japan, with plans to open nearly 90 new restaurants in 1996. Approximately 90% of the IHOP units were franchised, with the highest restaurants in California, Florida, Texas, and Japan. System total revenues continued to grow, bringing IHOP to supremacy in the family dining industry in the late 1990s.
IHOP has a high degree of market awareness, a broad international presence, a diverse menu, over 30,000 staff, and is inexpensive. The chain of restaurants is renowned for its signature pancakes and waffles.
In comparison to its competitors, Bakers Square delivers a wide variety of balanced recipes. The restaurant is concentrated in the Midwest of the United States, which means that it has a more significant area. Baker’s Square still has a better ranking than IHOP on Facebook.
Country Kitchen is renowned for delivering cheaper costs than its rivals, casual dining establishments.
Denny’s
Denny’s Company (Denny’s) was founded on 29 September 1988; it runs an independently owned full-service restaurant chain. The corporation owns and runs Denny’s brand through its affiliate, Denny’s, Inc. Denny’s Company comprises nearly 1,706 restaurants, including independently owned/licensed restaurants and a company operated.
Besides the regular breakfast items, Denny’s provides various lunch and dinner items, like burgers, sandwiches, salads, and onions. It also serves a variety of beverages, appetizers as well as desserts. It also sells items for children and the elderly. The purchasing department administers programs that enable the acquisition of food and non-food items.
Its franchisees also buy food and non-food items directly from its manufacturers under these programs. The Company’s restaurants are located in the District of Columbia, the United States Territories, California, Texas, and Florida.
Denny’s is regarded as the Grand Slam Breakfast; Denny’s is among America’s leading franchise agreement full-service restaurant franchises due to the number of restaurants they’ve established. Denny’s is also regarded as America’s Diner, or “local dining” in foreign areas. It is usually opened 24/7 in most locations; the Company provides quality meals to its customers. Harold Butler and Richard Jezak established the Company in 1953. The headquarters is situated in Spartanburg, SC.
About 1,700 Denny’s restaurants are open in Canada, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While there are still over 400 Denny’s units in Japan, Denny’s Inc. sold all rights to Japan in 1984.
The Company delivers a comprehensive breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night menu with all the dishes served all the time is a strong differentiator from the competition. Denny’s offers a variety of restaurant styles to its franchisees and licensees.
The creative menu planning group enables Denny’s to adapt its dishes to local preferences. And Denny’s has a range of branded dishes popular worldwide, such as the Grand SlamTM. The restaurant brand can only last 65+ years through constant innovation in its words, decoration, and marketing to a wide demographic, the Company says.
Denny’s depends on the U.S. to pursue international opportunities. Business Operation, IFA, and EGS, the International Consultancy Firm. The corporation is seeking a country licensee with financial resources, a track record with Western products, and infrastructure to enable development and access to premium real estate and supplies.
Denny’s chosen countries for expansion will have a strong U.S. food brand presence, particularly with restaurant dining, stable GDP growth, and a flourishing middle class. Denny’s philosophy is to regard each other as a family. The business considers all sides of the circumstance and believes in value.
Moreso, they’re always doing what’s best for their guests, their employees, and the business. Be on the right page in all your affairs, with no secret motives. The business values trust for each other. Treat one another with reverence and integrity. All need to practice the golden rule. “Do to someone what you would like them to do to you.” Talk to each other in kind words, acknowledging each other’s perspective and not gossip; it just separates people. They also believe in staying positive.
At Denny’s every day, you decide what you will accomplish. Why not work hard to do the very best you can? If you don’t seek perfection, you can never reach excellence; always do what you say you will do, and try to do better tomorrow than you did today.
Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. is an American chain of mixed restaurants and gift shops with a Southern Country theme. The company was founded in 1969 by Dan Evins; its first store was in Tennessee, Lebanon.
The corporate headquarters are situated in a separate location in the same area. At first, the chain stores were clustered along Interstate Highway Exit in the Southeast and Midwest of the United States and spread throughout the country in the 1990s and 2000s. As of September 1, 2019, the retailer operates 660 stores in 45 states.
This group got successful in the restaurant industry by hanging on to a piece of history. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store runs and maintains some 660 of its flagship restaurants renowned for their country kitsch, rustic décor, and down-home cuisine.
The eateries, located mostly along interstate highways in about 45 states, serve mostly traditional American food, such as chicken, ham, and roast beef dishes, but are most popular as breakfast locations. It also owns a limited number of Holler & Dash Biscuit House locations and has a non-controlling interest in the Punch Bowl Social entertainment chain.
The corporation sources its food goods from a few different manufacturers on a cost-plus basis. Both restaurants are housed in self-contained buildings and have gift shops, which contribute nearly one-fourth of overall business sales. Apparel and footwear are the company’s primary sales drivers in the fashion market sector.
Cracker Barrel is registered under the NASDAQ: CBRL ticker. Cracker Barrel has purchased three companies. Their most recent purchase was Maple Street Biscuit on October 14, 2019. They purchased Maple Street Biscuit for $36 million. Cracker Barrel has seven existing staff members, including Vice President, Supply Chain & Quality Assurance Doug Couvillion.
Cracker Barrel uses 25 technology tools and services, including HTML5, Google Analytics, and jQuery, according to G2 Stack. According to BuiltWith, Cracker Barrel is actively using 97 innovations for its website. These include Meta Viewport, iPhone / Mobile Compliant, and SPF.
The first Cracker Barrel opened in 1969 in Lebanon, Tennessee, complete with gas pumps. A concept designer, Dan W. Evins, aimed to help grow his family’s oil company and better support travelers traveling on interstates and highways. Eventually, all the petrol stations were phased out, and the restaurant concentrated on what had been known: down-home country food with a southern flair. And since then, it has been a success.
Fans have a lot of love for Cracker Barrel. They have won the Best Family Dining Restaurant award time and time again, and people make remarks about Yelp-like, “Perfect home setting, great daily sales! First and foremost, excellent customer service.
At Cracker Barrel, They act and treat you as a family. They’re still polite, still welcoming. The food is lovely at home! The restaurant offers menu offerings that cater to all adults and teenagers and even the most discerning eaters.
It serves breakfast all day long, which is a bonus. It looks like the interior of your grandma’s house if your grandma was an old-fashioned Southern lady that lived on a farm, and when she didn’t make you pancakes, she was antique. They’re renowned for their hospitality.
Waffle house
Waffle House, Inc. is an American restaurant chain with 2,100 locations in 25 U.S. states. Many of the outlets are in the South, where the chain is an emblem of regional identity. Waffle House is located in Norcross, Georgia, in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Waffle House Inc. runs a restaurant. The Business serves a wide range of breakfast services such as waffles, biscuits, eggs, steaks, chili, and soups. Waffle House is targeting people in the United States.
Waffle House made a name for itself in the late 1950s and 1960s by living up to the pledge of “Fresh Food Easy,” which became one of its trademarks. Waffle House has placed many of its restaurants along the interstates, and truckers and tourists have come to know that the Waffle House sign indicated decent food and pleasant service.
The Business gradually expanded beyond Georgia’s borders and into surrounding states, including Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.
As the U.S. highway grid developed in the southeast in the 1950s and 1960s, additional Waffle House franchises were added along major roads such as Highway 75, which stretches from the southern tip of Florida through Tennessee to northern Michigan, and Interstate 85, which crosses Virginia and reaches southwest to Alabama. Waffle House gradually developed a network of several hundred restaurants in the South East.
While Waffle House’s operating style had modified little in the 1980s, the scale of the chain had expanded. In 1987, Dun & Bradstreet announced that Waffle House had 351 franchises in addition to its network of corporate outlets. It was also told that Waffle House had a workforce of 4,500, had a financial valuation of approximately $60 million, and had gross assets of about $81.2 million.
Nation’s Restaurant News reported that Waffle House had produced about $210 million in revenue in 1987, up from around $175 million a year ago, including receipts from franchise units. Except for franchise sales, the company’s profits amounted to around $87.5 million, marginally up from an estimated $84.6 million in 1976.
Waffle House expanded exponentially, partially as a result of its franchise. Waffle House’s 1988 announcements, however, put doubt on the financial sustainability of the franchise plan. Nancy Wilson, an employee of the Franchising Division, told the Atlanta Business Chronicle that the organization had intended to abandon any new franchise attempts, making a statement as part of its effort to remove Waffle House from the newspaper’s list of top Georgia franchises. Joe Rogers, Jr., declined to confirm the story, saying, “It is our policy never to disclose information with the public.”
Rogers and Forkner aimed to start up a business known for its customer service and fresh food. Since its inception, the chain has been dedicated to customer service and has also been one of the first restaurants in Atlanta to serve African Americans. What began as a small Georgian enterprise in Atlanta’s outskirts has become a symbol in the American Southeast with more than 1,500 outlets in 25 states.
The Waffle House Museum was launched in 2010 at the location of the original restaurant in Avondale Estates, Georgia. Visitors to the museum will read more about corporate history.
Bob Evans
Bob Evans Restaurants is an American national restaurant chain operated by Golden Gate Capital and located in New Albany, Ohio. Since its establishment in 1948 by Bob Evans (1918–2007), the restaurant chain grew into a corporation under the corporate brand name Bob Evans Farms, Inc. (BEF) and subsequently set up a separate food subsidiary to deal with the selling of its commodities in other countries.
The group made several significant acquisitions, including Owens Country Sausage in 1987, and was broken in January 2017 by selling its restaurant business to Golden Gate Capital. BEF Foods remained independent until September 2017, when it was sold to Post Holdings.
Bob Evans Farms, Inc. has been delivering farm-fresh goodness to your home or a grocery store in your area for over 60 years. Proudly the # 1 vendor of refrigerated sides including several types of mashed potatoes, macaroni, and cheese, Oven BakeTM side dishes, and Family ClassicsTM, the firm is a major manufacturer and seller of more than 60 types of sausage and bacon products, frozen hand-made breakfast goods and other convenience foods.
Restaurants feature a country-living motif where most outlets sell baked goods, treats, and small gift products. The company sold pork goods and cold side dishes in the supermarket grocery and foodservice markets. The sale of these items, distributed under the names of Bob Evans and Owens Country Sausage, was independent of the Restaurant Division.
Bob Evans Farms is registered under the NASDAQ: BOBE ticker; Bob Evans Farms purchased Mimi’s Cafe on July 9, 2004. Mimi’s Cafe was purchased for $103M. Bob Evans Farms has two board members and contractors, including Paul Williams. Bob Evans Farms uses 32 application tools and resources, including HTML5, Google Analytics, and jQuery, according to G2 Stack. According to BuiltWith, Bob Evans Farms is actively using 39 innovations for its website. These include Meta Viewport, iPhone / Mobile Compliant, and SPF.
Bob Evans’ shares jumped by more than 6 percent to $77.67 in the afternoon trading session and fell marginally to $77.41 on Wednesday morning, which is already better than Post’s $77 bid per share. The company has a total of 1,247 workers, including 240 workers, Columbus Business First said. In its last audit, it posted an annual net profit of $126.5 million.
If you’ve ever eaten at a Bob Evans restaurant, you’ll be acquainted with a picture of Bob Evans Farm in southeastern Ohio. It’s on the cover of each menu.
In June 2003, the company acquired a 56,000 square foot food processing facility in Sulfur Springs, Texas. In November of that year, the company reopened the facility, manufacturing its SnackWiches range of convenience sandwich goods for the grocery, food service, and convenience store industries. Also, in the fall of 2003, the Bob Evans Restaurant chain launched the Dinner Sensations line of entrances to improve the dinner market. The line featured four protein-rich choices: T-bone steak, grilled chicken, pork chops, and salmon filet.
Another attempt to improve the dining company was made by testing a roadside transport service in which consumers parked in designated locations to pick up and pay for their orders from their vehicles. Such efforts made it clear that Bob Evans Farms was destined to remain one of the core players in the U.S. family dining market while retaining its dedication to consistency and “farm down” hospitality.
First Watch
First Watch is a U.S. restaurant chain located in University Park, Florida. The name is a nautical reference to the first change on the board since First Watch restaurants are only available from 7:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Their 6,000 workers are distributed over more than 200 sites in 26 countries. The first was opened by Ken Pendery and John Sullivan in Pacific Grove, California, in 1983.
At First Watch, they begin every morning at dawn cracks, chopping fresh fruits and vegetables, baking muffins, and ginning up their French toast batter from scratch. All are presented to order, and freshness is never lost. The restaurant does not use heat lamps or deep fryers — only the finest ingredients are used for the freshest flavor. Upon arrival, we greet you with a pot — not just a cup — of our Sunrise Project coffee, along with free newspapers and a WI-Fi Internet connection.
A variety of private equity investors has funded the financing. It was first bought by Chatterton Partners about 15 years ago, followed by Freeman Spogli & Co in 2011, and was purchased by Advent International in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The restaurant chain specializes in the daytime-only restaurant style. It serves a delicious range of eggs, omelets, biscuits, wraps, crepes, salads, chicken salad, melted wraps, and chicken quesadilla. It is based in several locations such as Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, United States.
So is First Watch’s fresh approach to friendly, fast, and welcoming service. It’s all part of our FirstTM service philosophy-doing whatever it takes to make your visit enjoyable and keep you returning for more.
At First Watch, you’ll still have your cup of freshly squeezed Project Sunrise Coffee, the option to order everything on our menu at any time of day, the opportunity to replace anything you need to suit your dietary restrictions, free newspapers, free Wi-Fi, and the luxury of taking your sweet time to enjoy every minute of your First Watch experience.
First Watch Restaurants uses 39 technology products and utilities, including HTML5, Google Analytics, and jQuery, according to G2 Stack. First Watch Restaurants is deliberately using 56 innovations on its website, according to BuiltWith. These include Meta Viewport, iPhone / Mobile Compliant, and SPF.
For most other restaurants offering three meals a day, it’s a long and exhausting day. But not at First Watch, one of the fastest expanding restaurant chains in the U.S. However, most places are open at 7 a.m. It closes its doors every day at 2:30 p.m., offering only breakfast and lunch — but not dinner. No wonder why they call themselves the “Daytime Café.”
In the light of this First Watch, it has collaborated with the incredible organizations that Share Our Strength for years – trying to give back to their communities that have brought the First Watch so much. First, Watch funds community activities through funding and in-kind donations.
At First Watch, there’s a lot of carnage on the side of the road from concepts that have succumbed to that. The organization is continually looking at a 20% growth rate based on 50 new restaurants in 300 locations. They are currently focusing on strengthening their training program and reinforcing their culture. The restaurant intends to bring every manager to Sarasota in training they have termed “cultural immersion.”
Frisch’s Big Boy
Frisch’s Big Boy is a national Big Boy chain of restaurants based in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2001, Frisch’s became the sole owner of the Big Boy trademark in Indiana, Kentucky, and much of Ohio and Tennessee for several years, and is no longer associated with the Big Boy Restaurant Group. There were 118 restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio in July 2019, including 20 Big Boy stores in Cincinnati, 6 in Dayton, Ohio, and 6 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Frisch’s is the oldest, longest-lived area Big Boy operator in California, except Bob’s Big Boy, the first Big Boy restaurant and franchiser.
Like McDonald’s Golden Arches or Taco Bell’s sparkling bell, the monuments outside of Big Boy’s stores, showing a chubby little boy in the overalls with a hamburger plate on it, are more of a fast-food symbol, with more than 70% national brand awareness, meaning that seven in ten people know what you’re talking about when you bring up Big Boy.
But what’s the story behind the iconic chain of restaurants? What set this restaurant apart from the rest of the burger-and-fry joints?
Well, for one thing, it’s been around in one way or another for a long time — since the 1930s. The restaurant’s founder has created a little innovation that improved fast food as we know it—anything called the double cheeseburger.
Still this day, guests at Big Boy’s restaurants will enjoy double-deck burgers, freshly sliced French fries, and milkshakes, and at some places, they will also do so when staring at the vintage vehicles that once flooded the original Big Boy’s parking lot.
The only thing that could make your Big Boy dual-deck cheeseburger taste any better is to get a feel of the history of the guy that made it all happen and of the business that’s just not going to leave.
Big Boy is a classic American hamburger joint, so much so that when The Beatles went to America in 1965 on tour to promote their Aid album! They ended up eating at Bob’s Big Boy restaurant in Burbank, California.
The foursome played at the Hollywood Bowl and stayed at the Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills. The Beatles’ journey was unforgettable in more than one way — they even met the rock star, Elvis Presley.
Legend has it that the boy band had to get the luxury of dining at an authentic American dinner. With its “Googie” architecture, its acceptance of car culture, and, of course, its hamburgers, Big Boy was just the spot.
These days, “The Beatles Booth” is famous for Bob’s Big Boy. According to the restaurant, tourists from all over the world come here expecting to sit at the booth, and they say the wait can be hours-long.
What made Big Boy such a success the first time it opened? A&W and White Castle were both open and serving burgers, as were many independent diners and restaurants, but what set it apart?
What truly made Big Boy a sensation was the Big Boy burger that Bob Wian invented in 1937. One version of the story states he was cooking one night when a group of musicians who played with Chuck Foster came to the restaurant and told him they wanted something new.
Black Bear Diner
Black Bear Diner is a fine dining restaurant in the Western United States that offers home-style and “old-fashioned” delicious food. The first restaurant opened in Mount Shasta, California, in 1995, founded by Bruce Dean and Bob & Laurie Manley. The organization is based in Redding, California, USA. As of February 2020, Black Bear Diner has 145 branches in 14 states.
Before introducing Ctuit Tech (now Compeat), Black Bear Diner relied on another competing brand for standard reports. With a single channel per location, store-level reports did not connect to a centralized location, forcing managers to waste considerable time and resources attempting to handle correspondence.
Managers from each place wasted tiresome hours e-mailing plans, reminders, and changes to recipes. Inevitably, as they faxed plans, the fax machine would break down, and management would become deeply irritated by their obsolete technologies.
The three-tiered management committee, composed of corporate employees, owners, and administrators, aimed to step away from static sales results. Each level has a tremendous effect on the organizational decisions of menu products, labor, and scheduling. And both of these choices depend on ease of contact at a central position.
After a comprehensive analysis of their business intelligence choices, Black Bear Diner has been drawn to Compeat for a more dynamic and common forum for both stores and management levels. Compeat’s analytical platform provides a single point data analysis and collaboration tool with greater functionality for executive administrators, franchise owners, and store-level managers.
With Compeat ‘s versatile and various reporting options for all users, including dashboards, exports, maps, multiple reports, and Main Info parts – combined with a very intuitive interface, Black Bear can customize its notifications for quick and productive review. This cost-effective approach also provided the 50 + restaurant chain with the care and customer support they required.
One of the crucial benefits provided by Compeat was that the Manager Log replaced their old manager’s manual logbook. This centralized online contact platform helps each position to join shift narratives, special activities, assignments, staff notices, and weather forecasts from multiple shifts.
The ability to store different records based on the Manager Log entries has proven to be an immensely useful asset for the management team, giving them cross-location continuity.
The broadcasting company’s wide range of activities and news has created a compelling forum for others’ contact. Through viewing the Manager Log online and making all the information accessible in one spot, Compeat has become the primary contact mechanism and messaging channel for all Black Bear Diner locations.
In terms of other operating fields within the Black Bear Diner Company, the management could see the added value that Compeat provides with specific additional modules that they were trying to develop. Simpson goes on to add, “Food management was another field that we wanted to turn around and study radically. Compeat provides vital financial skills and vendor administration and the Accounts Payable module, which had become a significant advantage for us in a number of our corporate locations. Further, we plan to carry out the Inventory and Recipe Tracking modules to our franchisees as well.
The Original Pancake House
Les Highet and Erma Hueneke opened the Original Pancake House in Portland, Oregon, in 1953. Building on their many years of culinary experience, and their vast working knowledge of authentic national and ethnic pancake recipes, they delivered this exceptional and original menu that has achieved national recognition without compromise.
The Original Pancake House is a family company of the second and third generations, which is very proud of maintaining the high quality that makes our food outstanding. The restaurant now has over one hundred franchises from coast to coast that has gained local and national acclaim.
Only the very finest ingredients, such as 93 score butter, pure 36 percent whipping cream, fresh grade AA eggs, hard wheat unbleached flour, and their sourdough starter recipe, are needed for their recipes. The batters and sauces of Te Company are made fresh in the kitchen of every restaurant.
The original signature items of the pancake house include the Apple Pancake. A single large pancake smothered to perfection with sautéed apples and cinnamon sugar baked to make a deliciously creamy cinnamon-sugar glaze. The Dutch Baby is another signature item, a delicious air-filled oven-baked to golden perfection and served to create a mouthwatering mix of lemon, whipped butter, and powdered sugar.
One of the first franchised restaurants opened in 1958 in Anaheim, California, and is still operated by the original Portland location’s family of employees. Sign outside Anaheim’s Original Pancake House, California
The Original Pancake House was named one of the top ten “best” in America by chef and food critic James Beard, who grew up in Portland. The Original Pancake House in Portland won a James Beard Foundation Award as an American Classic in 1999.
According to the company website, OPH was also named one of USA Today’s Top 10 Pancake Restaurants in the Country, and the Hyde Park, Chicago location was well regarded as the favorite breakfast eatery of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. On one occasion, he held a restaurant interview with Walter Jacobson, the anchorman.
In May 2013, when it opened its first overseas location in Seoul, South Korea, the chain became international. A month later, in Kichijōji, Tokyo, Japan, it was extended to Japan.
As each restaurant is different from the next, as a backdrop to the finest-tasting, highest-quality pancakes, and related breakfast, lunch, and dinner foods, each Original Pancake House features a homey dining atmosphere. The Original Pancake House chain, known for never sacrificing consistency, has taken a cautious approach to expansion, concentrating instead on perfecting its over 25 recipes of pancake, waffle, and crepe, made with a proprietary enzyme that makes a lighter pancake.
OPH uses the authentic recipes of renowned chefs and “home recipes,” including their world-famous oven-baked Apple Pancake and Dutch Baby entrees, passed down from generation to generation.
When they discover these cozy breakfast places are part of a chain, new customers at an Original Pancake House restaurant are amazed. The Original Pancake House occupies a special place in the mature yet increasingly growing breakfast market. It stands apart from “cookie-cutter” rivals who compromise product consistency and ambiance in the name of productivity and labor savings.
There are thousands of pancake restaurants in the American countryside, but only OPH counts as the most imitated restaurant in the industry. In the preparation of every recipe and every part, each Original Pancake House strives for excellence. The franchisees were all highly successful.
Village Inn
Village Inn is a casual restaurant chain in the United States. Its restaurants are famous for their breakfast menu offerings. They also have a range of salads, wraps, burgers, melts, and dining pieces. They also received several awards from the American Pie Council (APC).
Since around September 2020, Village Inn manages 140 restaurants in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming, and Guam. Village Inn served 212 restaurants in September 2015. The parent company of Village Inn, American Blue Ribbon Holdings, is located in Nashville, Tennessee.
According to Zoominfo Village Inn, which has 2,570 employees, the company has a sales turnover of $0.5 million and was incorporated in 1994. The business was founded in 1961. The firm has a starter, brunch, and dinner menu.
There are more than 200 Village Inn locations in the West and Midwest of the USA. This data is corroborated in the corporate web page of Village Inn.
The Village Inn Pie has received various prizes from the American Pie Council. In 2018, the Village Inn had the best southern pecan pumpkin as some of the pies that won prizes. The company has won awards for more than ten years.
More than once, tourists in Denver stopped at Village Inn for a bite to eat and liked it so much that they asked about the franchise options before they left. Such demands encouraged co-founders Merton “Andy” Anderson and Jim Mola to put an ad for prospective franchisees in The Wall Street Journal. Shortly after that, the first Village Inn franchise began running in 1961, paving the way to the franchise’s prosperous creation.
There is plenty of opportunity for expansion to other areas, so more and willing franchises can afford to affiliate with the company.
The launch of a new menu and a bid acts to entice both old and new customers. It often acts as an incentive to raise corporate profits by marketing goods to potential consumers and old customers, who are once again patronizing them due to their new menu.
They are also active in the provision of hotel facilities. This is also a way of diversifying the income of the company to raise its revenue.
Village Inn’s success in offering quality daily breakfast continues with their lunch, dinner, and award-winning pies. Village Inn provides the Finest Pastry in America – French Silk, Lemon Supreme, Country Apple, and Caramel Pecan Silk Supreme. The restaurant is proud of its tradition — and delighted to be part of our guests’ everyday lives.
With over sixty years of success, Village Inn records more than 200 corporate and franchise restaurants based mainly in the Rocky Mountain, Midwest, Arizona, and Florida.
The business’s guests visit the Village Inn because they know they will enjoy tasty food and extra-friendly service in a safe and relaxing family atmosphere. Many village Inn guests who visited their restaurants in their youth are now taking their children and grandchildren to Village Inn — when they’re hungry for life’s easy pleasures.
Shoney’s
Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Shoney’s is a privately owned restaurant chain. It operates restaurants in 17 states, with different Midwest sites, and lowers the Mid-Atlantic States, mostly in the South.
Builder Alex Schoenbaum opened the first Parkette Drive-In in 1947 and became a Big Boy Restaurants licensee in 1952. The name was changed to Shoney’s two years later, and violent sub-franchising followed. Thirty years later, Shoney dropped the Big Boy affiliation after having outgrown its Big Boy territory.
Shoney’s is currently owned by David Davoudpour, who acquired the business in 2006 through Atlanta’s Royal Hospitality Corporation.
Shoney’s is a casual family restaurant serving traditional American-style food such as hamburgers, chicken, steaks, seafood, sandwiches, salads, and desserts. The hot fudge cake and strawberry pie are some of the iconic menu items. Shoney’s also became popular starting in the 1980s for its breakfast bar. With certain outlets having buffets and alcohol service, it provides a full-menu dining service.
The restaurant chain founded Shoney’s Inn, a motel chain, in 1975. After the motels were sold off in 1991, Shoney’s continued to earn royalties on the brand. The last remaining Shoney’s Inns were re-branded as Guest Houses between 2002 and 2006.
The vision of Shoney is to build excellent consumer price/value through unique and competitive differential points in a clean, healthy, enjoyable, and exciting environment targeting excellent food and hospitality. The mission of Shoney is to make every client a frequent guest.
According to Davoudpour, community involvement is part of Shoney’s core business model. In our company, three values must be followed: prioritizing simplicity, creativity, and giving back to the community. If you are a franchisee of Shoney, you need to be involved in your neighborhood.’
In the Nashville area, Shoney’s charitable efforts go beyond youth outreach. Franchisees are encouraged to give veterans a free meal and fittingly celebrate neighborhood heroes. Many franchisees are also focusing on fundraising and social projects with local churches and schools.
The Boy Scouts of America’s Navigator Scholarship Program profits from one of Shoney’s most notable initiatives. Shoney’s has offered the Navigators program $536,000 by 176 scholarships. To get a chance at a better life, this initiative helps young people to complete high school. We are starting this curriculum for 8th through 12th-grade students.
Then, suppose these kids apply to school themselves and stay away from drugs and alcohol. In that case, we will commit to staying with them when they go to college, anywhere in the world, through a Shoney’s Navigator Program Scholarship, Davoudpour said. “All of our franchisee partners are involved. Before and after college, franchisees meet the students, and some kids describe their life story with bravery.
Shoney’s is reinvigorated, revamped, and ready to become a hub for global dining. More than ever, the new Shoney’s promises more. We have a fantastic new menu and an upgraded buffet bar full of tasty and nutritious options.
Shari’s Cafe and Pies
In the western United States, Shari’s Cafe & Pies, initially known as Shari’s Restaurants, is a chain of family dining restaurants. The first restaurant of the chain was opened in Hermiston, Oregon, in 1978. The company operated 95 locations in Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Nebraska, and Wyoming as of August 2017. Restaurants are open 365 days a year. Many (but not all) are also open 24 hours. For most of its restaurant locations, Shari’s features a distinctive hexagonal construction style. Its corporate offices are located in Beaverton, Oregon, in the Progress region.
The restaurants of Shari are noteworthy for their patented hexagonal style. Initially, Bergquist wanted to sell its proprietary concept to another company. Still, they launched their chain in Hermiston when they could not find a restaurant company ready to buy. Most restaurants in Shari are designed for this design; it puts the kitchen in the middle of the restaurant, providing easy access to serve customers for the waiting staff, and increases the number of tables next to a window.
Historically, the dining area was divided by half upon entering Shari’s restaurant, with one half on either side of the entry. Smoking would be allowed on one side, and non-smoking would be on the other. The restaurants are non-smoking today, but some Shari restaurants have opened video lottery rooms (some of which allow smoking) that occupy and are walled off a portion of the former dining room.
Shari’s is the most extensive Pacific Northwest-based full-service family dining chain offering regionally sourced, new, made-to-order meals that bring family and friends together. Each Shari’s Café & Pies location, founded in 1978 and operated by Shari’s Management Corporation of Beaverton, Oregon, is open 24 hours a day with a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu wide variety of award-winning specialty pies. The chain currently has 95 stores in Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Nebraska, and Wyoming, with over 4,000 employees.
Perkins Restaurant and Bakery
Perkins Restaurant and Bakery, or only Perkins, is an American delicate dining chain that serves breakfast throughout the day. It’s even got a bakery that sells pastries.
Established in 1958, Perkins runs 296 restaurants in 32 states and two provinces in Canada. The Perkins system comprises 85 restaurants owned and managed by the corporation and 209 franchised units.
With its varied, reasonably priced menu featuring breakfast, lunch, dinner, bakery options, and elegant and newly remodeled restaurants built to make it more convenient and satisfying for visitors, Perkins Restaurant & Bakery is a favorite dining establishment with a fine and valued reputation on the market.
The durability and success of Perkins Restaurant & Bakery are primarily due to the concept’s ability to respond to shifting customer dining trends and emerging taste tastes while offering the home-style goodness that guest’s desire.
At Perkins, they continually refresh their menu with new, delicious, and creative items that take their place alongside Perkins’ classic guest classics, some of which have been on our menu for more than 30 years.
The company is still very proud to differentiate itself from the service and expertise we have. This is and continues to be a trademark of the restaurant’s business.
Perkins Restaurants and Bakery use three technology tools and resources, including Google Analytics, jQuery, and Google Fonts, according to G2 Stack. Perkins Restaurants and Bakery are currently using 42 technologies on its website, according to BuiltWith. These include Meta Viewport, iPhone / Mobile Friendly, and Google Analytics.
Perkins seeks to recruit experienced restaurant operators interested in being franchise owners in selected U.S. states and Canadian provinces. Perkins provides services to franchisees with its extensive and increasing franchise network, including accounting functions, IT finance, support for new store development/opening, and more.
Expertise is often offered one-on-one by a professionally qualified Perkins franchise manager who serves as a liaison, putting together the franchisees’ services before, after, and after the restaurant’s opening.
Perkins underwent industry adjustments in the 2000s. In 2000, it partnered with a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Restaurant Corporation (TRC). In 2005, TRC was purchased by Castle Harlan, a New York-based private equity investment group, for roughly US$ 245 million.
In May 2006, the parent company purchased Marie Callender’s, a chain of casual dining restaurants, also known for their freshly made pies, and integrated it with the Perkins chain, creating Perkins.
For the last 60 years, Perkins has grown to include almost 400 restaurants. The family’s dining chain has retained the charm of its initial personality while ever-changing to remain essential and new.
Guests are drawn to up-to-date, new facilities, expanding and creative menu items, and exclusive, freshly prepared bakery options while focusing on reliable consistency, value, warm environment, and pleasant service. Perkins Restaurant & Bakery continues this optimistic picture with the “Kindness Served Everyday” initiative to mark its 60th year and the corporate tradition of kindness. The movement will be sponsored by television, radio, print, digital and social media.
Breakfast at Perkins is fantastic. Their morning staff is quick, friendly, and polite. Food is fast, and new and beverages are refilled. Perkins is an excellent place to eat, they have a diversified menu and a friendly, clean, and polite bakery staff, and they were short-staffed and beneficial.
Metro Diner
Established in 1992 in Jacksonville, Florida, by the Davoli family, Metro Diner decided to celebrate its 50th restaurant opening in Sarasota and expand its brand throughout the U.S. in other markets. In Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the Metro Diner also has locations.
In 2018, in New Jersey, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina, the company will open its first locations. Metro Diner is generating 3,700 new jobs because of the rapid growth, including more than 150 new management positions nationally this year alone. The company plans to open 35 restaurants this year and intends to open between 45 and 48 the following year. One of the main factors that Connerty contributes to the strong momentum of the brand is keeping things local.
With 100 staff members and about 100 and 128 seats, a typical Metro Diner is approximately 3,500 square feet, start-up costs are about $1 million for each venue, and annual sales are usually about $3 million. Metro Diner has built-in versatility from a real estate perspective, he said. With seating for approximately 125 guests, in many settings, the idea will work.
Other factors for the brand’s success include the development of value and “unique” hospitality, Connerty noted. With most dishes priced under $15, the company prides itself on warm, friendly service and providing broad portion sizes and indulgent comfort food with flair and featuring premium signature dishes, including Fried Chicken and Waffles, Charleston Shrimp & Grits, and Meatloaf Plate, the brand’s made-from-scratch menu.
With the expansion heading to markets known for their diner culture in the northeast, Metro Diner’s sales grew 71 percent in 2018, according to Technomic’s list of the 500 largest restaurant chains in the U.S.
Metro Diner currently has 67 outlets, with 57 owned and ten franchised by the company. But it’s growing faster than “scrambled eggs and coffee” can be said. In 2018, it opened 21 new locations and was planning to launch an extra 20 in 2019. It currently includes 14 states, including Florida, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, its home base.
It has not earned any investment from private equity but has contributed equity from individuals. Chicken and waffles, braised beef tips, and meatloaf platters are their three most popular dishes.
Although their desirable, must-have-again-and-again food is a draw, they realize that it’s not all about eating; it’s about how you’re handled. A warm welcome follows any hot coffee, mimosa, or a cold beer. And at the front entrance, their operation doesn’t end. Since they are committed to being your community restaurant, through volunteer work, sponsorships and collaborations, they are passionate about being a good neighbor and actively help the neighborhoods in which they are.
So come on as you are, eating whatever you love, stay, and laugh whenever you like. In return, the Metro Diner promises to bring something unique to the table at all times.
Huddle House
Huddle House, Inc. is a privately owned, casual American dining restaurant. There are 339 units in 23 separate states with a focus in the Southeastern United States.
Huddle House’s classic small-town charm tends to contribute to the popularity of the big-time brand.
With more than 400 restaurants open or under construction, Atlanta-based Huddle House is on the run, with a bread and butter development plan focusing on making its lively presence known in smaller markets.
Known for its “Any Meal, Any Time” reputation, Southern hospitality, and nutritious servings at affordable prices, Huddle House is a 55-year-old legendary brand that has become a hometown classic restaurant franchise.
Huddle House is a host of family and friends who have pulled together delicious recipes, cooked-to-order, and served from their hearts. From their first restaurant, which opened more than 50 years ago in Decatur, Georgia, to every neighborhood we work today, that’s the basic concept that brings us together every day? For someone who doesn’t need the latest trendy thing, but needs a home-cooked meal instead.
The kind of savory slices of bacon or sausage, or softly sweet signature waffles freshly pressed in the waffle iron, or 100 percent beef burgers filled with melted cheese, crunchy veggies or sautéed onions and toasted buns, or some of our lovingly made meals with the rich southern flavors you know.
The restaurant is a neighborhood dinner that makes every meal fresh, spicy, and cooked-to-order, anytime you want. Wherever you’ve come from or wherever you’re headed, this is your home and your kitchen.
What began with one location, the founder of the Huddle House, John Sparks, in 1964, has blossomed into 400 restaurants open or in construction around the nation — all with a significant positive effect on their neighborhoods. Fox’s essay praises our brand’s durability and our willingness to weather the Great Recession of 2008.
The restaurant is in the middle of an expansion into new territories, including Virginia and New Jersey. They hired franchise management workers to fund an ambitious expansion program over the next three years.
The company expects to open an additional 100 restaurants, and they are expanding far outside their initial core market in the Southeast and to areas in the West, Midwest, and Northeast. During the first nine months of last year, the Huddle House Breakfast Franchise signed 18 new franchises and two new multi-unit agreements for a total of more than 30 restaurants.
The business’s breakfast franchise owners have set their eyes on success and how our franchisee training program is instrumental in our progress.
Huddle House’s core principles include delivering quality food in a warm, welcoming atmosphere that brings the world together — remaining unchanged today. The essay ends with a few quick advice for those trying to go into business for themselves.
However, since the legendary brand marks more than 50 years of making people happy around the country by offering tasty and affordable food, you can rely on them to remain a hot brand for as long as American families love eating together.
Huddle House was named one of the Top 200 + Franchise Times franchises and ranked among Thrillist’s “Regional Breakfast Chains That Should Be Everywhere” list. Huddle House is hungry for explosive growth through a dual strategy of corporate and franchise expansion.
Friendly’s
Friendly’s is a chain of restaurants on the East Coast of the United States. Friendly’s was established by Blake Brothers S in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1935. Presley Blake and Curtis Blake. It has 10,000 employees; George Michel is the CEO of the company.
It offers a dining-style menu and highlights its 22 flavors of ice-cream; several locations have an ice-cream window next to a table service option. 167 Friendly’s have scattered across Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Vermont.
Screaming ice cream lovers at Friendly’s will soothe their pipes. Friendly’s Ice Cream runs a chain of 260 family-style restaurants in a dozen countries specializing in frozen milk items. In addition to ice cream, restaurants offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner — mostly traditional American dishes such as sandwiches and burgers. More than half of the outlets in the chain are franchised.
In 2016, the company sold its ice cream markets to Dean Foods Co. Ice cream products made by Dean Foods continue to be marketed under the Friendly brand name. Sun Capital Partners owns the restaurant company Friendly.
Ongoing upgrades to Friendly’s restaurants, an initiative dubbed “Focus 2000,” included the demolition of seats, installing more family-sized chairs, hiring new employees, and the widening of door windows, and the improvement of dinner menus. Healthier products such as roasted chicken and baked codfish were added in 1994.
Typical entrances were priced at between $5.70 and $6.40, which contained some side dishes. Sales per restaurant were growing, and the company’s annual sales rose marginally each year. Efforts were also made to expand abroad, with projects ongoing in the United Kingdom and the Far East.
By mid-1997, the company had revamped about 90% of its restaurants. It was on the way to profitability, but the industry’s debt burden and tough competition have kept the balance sheet in red since the takeover by TRC. In July, the company launched a new franchise program, selling 34 of its restaurants in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., to DavCo Restaurants, which agreed to open a total of 100 more restaurants within ten years.
Halfway into its seventh decade in operation, Friendly Ice Cream Company started to fail to get out of a time of slow sales and management difficulties. It was beginning to look like the aim of Donald N. Smith’s reinvigoration could be closer to fruition, when the debt burden had been minimized, and new steps to streamline processes were taking hold. Competition from the company’s competitors was heavy; however, there was still work to be done until its health could be completely recovered.
The company’s mission is to be the leading casual full-service restaurant/ice cream shopper. Luxury supermarket ice cream brand in the Eastern United States — famous for industry excellence, fantastic signature food, popular ice cream shop treats, sparkling clean services, timely, courteous service, and committed, skilled people — resulting in excellent consumer satisfaction and continuous sustainable development.
Eat’n Park
With 60 locations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, Eat’n Park is a restaurant chain located in Homestead, Pennsylvania. For its Smiley Sweets, the chain is renowned and has adopted the slogan “the spot for smiles.”
Eat’n Park Restaurants has been a family-owned restaurant chain since 1949 and serves guests in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. More than 8,000 team members are at the heart of Eat’n Park, dedicated to delivering friendly, responsive service and supporting a rising array of community programs, including an annual fundraising effort that has raised more than $10 million for children’s hospitals.
To support community activities and fundraisers, Eat’n Park also donates almost half a million Smiley Cookies, the brand’s iconic emblem every year.
With a comprehensive menu of breakfast, lunch, and dinner classics, we have something for everyone. Our constant Soup, Salad & Fruit Bar, offers fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms from the restaurant’s Farm Source program. Just a couple of the things guests love about Eat’n Park are hand-breaded fish, homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, and our classic Super burger.
Eat’n Park is a part of the foodservice design company Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, which includes Hello Bistro, The Porch, Pankhurst Dining, and SmileyCookie.com. Additional information is available online at www.enphospitality.com about the Eat’n Park Hospitality Community.
They have five core principles here at Eat’n Park that direct their decisions and the way they do business. These ideals reflect the culture of the company. They care about each other at Eat’n Park, they care about their guests, and they care about the people living in the neighborhoods they represent. In the forum, you can find out what they do.
Whenever possible, Eat’n Park offers fresh, wholesome food made from locally grown ingredients. Eat’n Park cuts our fruit every single day by hand. Hand-bread our fish and make their chili and chicken noodle soup from scratch. Eat’n Park. Via their Farm Source scheme, the business provides locally grown products by partnering with over 200 local farmers each year. Eat’n Park keeps its standards to a high-quality level, which is what our visitors expect.
The marketplace of Eat’n Park, the visitors of Eat’n Park, and the world of Eat’n Park are always evolving, and they continuously look for ways to change. For the sake of improvement, Eat’n Park does not change. The restaurant seeks change to make its business and its communities stronger.
Our company’s financial well-being is vital to the present and future success of the restaurant. For the good of their owners, team members, visitors, and customers, Eat’n Park is committed to being responsible long-term stewards of the financial capital at their disposal.
When they respect individual and group differences, Eat’n Park teams are stronger and more involved. Eat’n Park has been extending its offerings outside its namesake family restaurants, running luxury restaurants, and more casual eating locations.
The most popular business concept is Hello Bistro, a fast-casual chain focusing on delivering gourmet burgers and salads to Millennials and, at the same time, keeping its parent company connections to a minimum. This is done selling pre-packaged Smiley Cookies and the same ranch dressing brand as the main Eat’n Park chain, otherwise making no connection to Eat’n Park. With six locations, Eat’n Park plans to extend the concept of Hello Bistro in Pittsburgh’s metropolitan area and eventually into new markets.
We need to mention here that the list of family style restaurants above is not exhaustive. There are other family style restaurants which may not be as big as these ones which are equally doing well. In case you know of family style restaurants in your location, don’t hesitate to mention them in your comment for the delight of other readers.
