World’s First Combination IHOP/Applebee’s Restaurant Slated For Detroit

Image courtesy of JeepersMedia/JeepersMedia

This just in, from the Midwest: corporate siblings IHOP and Applebee’s will be joining forces to create a combination restaurant — the first of its kind — expected to open in downtown Detroit.

The 300-seat restaurant is slated to open late next year inside the city’s Millender Center, with the goal of serving guests in hotels nearby as well as tourists, office workers, and residents, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Will this co-branded restaurant just be an Applebee’s with stickier tables, or more like an IHOP that turns on local sports? It’s unclear: the menu is still in the works, insiders told the paper, so it’s anyone’s guess whether pancakes will be available all day right next to chicken wings.

The restaurant will feature a coffee bar and Detroit-centric interior design elements, said the executive chairman of the franchise in charge, TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants.

“This is the first IHOP/Applebee’s combo that’s ever been built anywhere,” Mark Schostak said. The Schostak company “is proud to expand our portfolio by uniquely combining two nationally recognized and family-oriented brands.”

IHOP was known as IHOP Corporation from its founding in 1976 until 2007, when it bought Applebee’s for $2.2 billion and changed its name to DineEquity.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.