Happy Hour To Hangover Cure: Applebee's Moves In With A Popular Breakfast Chain

Two of America's biggest dine-in brands, Applebee's and IHOP, are coming together to serve diners morning, noon, and night. The first dual IHOP-Applebee's location is set to open outside of San Antonio, TX in early 2025. This union of quesadilla hamburgers and pancake stacks is possible because the two restaurant chains share a parent company: Dine Brands. Dine previously tested the dual-restaurant format in several international locations and announced plans earlier this year to bring it to America after finding success abroad.

While having these two specific restaurants under one roof is new to American diners, the concept of the two-in-one dining destination is familiar to anyone who's visited a truck stop on their travels. Most famously, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut combined restaurant facilities for about a decade in an effort to compete with McDonald's in variety of menu choices. Equally famously, this hybrid format was quietly phased out, but it is fondly remembered to this day.

The decision to merge two restaurant brands that share a parent owner makes good business sense on paper. By combining brands, the locations are able to share costly restaurant equipment as well as servers and kitchen staff, resulting in lower overhead costs per location. Additionally, having IHOP's breakfast and brunch offerings combined with the viral Applebee's Date Night Pass means that diners have a reason to visit the combo spaces no matter when they choose to dine — with or without family. 

This merger fits in well with Applebee's recent streamlining strategy which resulted in several locations closing down. In full, Dine Brands has closed down dozens of standalone Applebee's locations throughout 2023 and 2024. While this could give the impression that the chain is in danger of completely disappearing, these moves are intended to strengthen existing franchises; updating strong locations with more efficient kitchen design in what should prove to be a boost to profitability.

In recent years, both IHOP and Applebee's embraced the concept of brand-supported ghost kitchens — delivery-only locations that don't carry the Applebee's or IHOP name but profit on items prepared and sold through the use of its kitchens. These restaurants (such as Pardon My Cheesesteak and CosmicWings) aren't owned by Dine Brands but still provide a boost to the business's bottom line. Ghost kitchen operations were also in major overseas markets before launching in the United States.