Saturday, April 20, 2002
BOARDMAN -- International House of Pancakes restaurant is coming back to the area, according to construction plans filed with the township.
IHOP Corp., the restaurant chain's parent company, intends to tear down the former Country Kitchen restaurant on Boardman-Poland Road and build a new restaurant, said Darren Crivelli, assistant zoning inspector.
The Bishara Co., a Boardman contractor, filed the plans this week with the township zoning office. It received a permit for a $300,000 project.
Despite the permit, Patrick Lenow, a spokesman for IHOP Corp., said no plans have been finalized for a Boardman restaurant. He said the company is looking for restaurant locations in Ohio but hasn't settled on any.
Officials at Bishara could not be reached.
Expansion plans
Lenow said California-based IHOP wants to enter Ohio because it wants to have restaurants in all 50 states. It now is in 41 states.
He said an Ohio restaurant would be a franchised location. The company selects sites, builds the restaurants and then turns them over to franchisees, who run more than 90 percent of the company's 1,017 restaurants.
IHOP is a publicly traded company that earned $40.3 million on revenues of $324.4 million last year.
Although known for its breakfast foods, IHOP restaurants also serve lunch and dinner.
Country Kitchen restaurants in Boardman and Austintown closed recently.
IHOP once operated a restaurant on Route 224 across from Southern Park Mall.