For the past few weeks, IHOP—the International House of Pancakes—has been teasing that something new was on the horizon and it was switching out the P (for pancakes) for a B, but it didn’t tell fans what the name change was all about. Well, now they’ve spilled the beans about the rebrand and many of the restaurant’s patrons have something to say about it.
From now on, IHOP will be known as IHOB–the International House of…Burgers.
“Everyone knows that IHOP makes world-famous pancakes so we felt like the best way to convince them that we are as serious about our new line of Ultimate Steakburgers as we are about our pancakes, was to change our name to IHOB,” Brad Haley, Chief Marketing Officer for IHOB restaurants, said in a statement about the change.
“We’ve pancaked pancakes for 60 years now so it’s the perfect time to start burgerin’ burgers, and we’re kicking it off by flipping the ‘p’ in IHOP to a ‘b’ for burgers,” he continued. “And, when you try them, I think you’ll agree with me that IHOb’s new line of Ultimate Steakburgers are so good that I’d put them up against anyone’s … just like our pancakes.”
After 60 years of being one of America’s favorite breakfast spots, the eatery is expanding its menu to include a slew of hamburgers. IHOP—err IHOB—is so serious about the rebrand and focusing on craft burgers they’ve already begun changing the signs at restaurants around the nation.
According to NPR, the switching the focus from pancakes to burgers may “be part of a plan to capture business in the day and early evening, outside of IHOP’s traditional strength in the morning hours. In May, IHOP reported that nearly half of its customers come in during breakfast time. Lunch follows (with 28 percent) and then dinner (16 percent) and late-night service (seven percent).”
Still, many fans of the establishment weren’t pleased with the new focus.
While restaurant goers on Twitter definitely had feelings…and a lot of jokes about IHOB’s new name, the eatery assured fans pancakes would remain on the menu.