IHOP Celebrates 50 Years, With Boulder Roots

Daily Camera:

When Jerry Lapin eats at a restaurant, he always sits facing the door.

No, Lapin isn’t a gangster, who keeps his eyes peeled for rivals. It’s just an old habit — he’s always thinking about the customers.

“If someone comes in and no one takes care of him, I get very nervous,” Lapin says.

Lapin picked up the habit in 1958. That’s when he and his older brother, Al Lapin Jr., opened their first restaurant together in Toluca Lake, Calif. The restaurant served an array of food — steak, sandwiches, burgers, deserts, eggs, coffee and pancakes. Lots of pancakes.

The Lapins called their eatery The International House of Pancakes. IHOP — as the chain of restaurants came to be known in the 1970s — turned 50 this year. In that time, the sit-down chain has flipped and served nearly 16 billion pancakes. It racked up $2.31 billion in sales in 2007, and opened its 1,361st franchise this summer. Read full article.