The Food Scout

Flip, sip, enjoy, says IHOP Cafe.  I love surprises when it comes to new restaurant concepts. Last week I was buzzing around suburban San Antonio looking for what’s new in supermarket delis when BAM! I caught a bright royal blue awning hanging over a brightly lit strip mall-based store with a strange sign called “IHOP Cafe.”  While IHOP has been making news of late with funny-faces and free pancakes across the country to compete with Denny’s Grand Slam it hit two days after the SuperBowl, IHOP has also apparently been quietly taking the brand in potentially another direction.  Judging by the fact that there are just a few reviews on urbanspoon.com since February 11, and the fact that the website (www.ihopcafe.com) has only an artist’s rendering and a single address, this appears to be a new concept being tested by IHOP as a potential way to make the brand relevant to a new generation of consumers who haven’t taken to the Denny’s/Bob Evans/Friendly’s restaurant formula.  Forget giant stacks of pancakes, chicken-fried steak and pots of coffee. IHOP CAFE serves specialty coffee, shakes, smoothies gourmet dollar-sized pancakes shingled on a plate with bacon bits on top, as well as wraps and sandwich melts. I don’t know why the San Antonio suburbs have been picked to launch such a concept, because that would require me to actually call someone at corporate and get them to talk about this stealth concept. Instead, it’s more fun to speculate and imagine that, somewhere, Denny’s has a trendy cafe concept that is trying to woo young Panera and Starbucks lovers to its brand as well.