This Is What Made IHOP's Original Menu International

It's an awfully lofty-sounding title for what's essentially a diner, isn't it? "International House of Pancakes." It sounds like what they'd call a cafe in the basement of the United Nations building. What makes it even stranger is that there's not really much that's "international" about IHOP's menu, at least not to modern eyes. Although there are locations in 14 different countries, these restaurants don't offer anything more esoteric than crepes, Belgian waffles, and mediocre pancake tacos. Well, it just goes to show how far we've come: when IHOP first opened, its offerings were, in fact, a good deal more exotic than what other diners had to offer, as with "Kauai Coconut" and offerings from Persia and Tahiti, which is how it got its name. (Apparently, some people don't even know what IHOP stands for in the first place — open the schools!)

You might not associate the food at IHOP with haute cuisine, but founder Al Lapin enlisted the help of a chef who trained at the legendary Cordon Bleu culinary school to develop recipes from around the world. Well, we say "around the world," but as with most foreign culture consumed by midcentury Americans, it was ultimately pretty Americanized. They were not serving blinis from Russia, kropser from Finland, or beghrir from Morocco — they were serving regular American pancakes with a couple of exotic ingredients. Still, if you had never been to Kauai or eaten a coconut, you would probably be pretty awestruck by "Kauai Coconut" pancakes.

International House of Pancakes was the brainchild of a businessman named Al Lapin, who had a pretty interesting background himself. He went to the University of Southern California's prestigious film school, worked in television for a while, and produced some instructional films about how to survive a nuclear bomb. After a brief, unsuccessful coffee delivery business, Lapin was inspired by the success of chains like Hula Burger aficionado Ray Kroc's McDonald's and set out to start one of his own. With the help of his brother Jerry, as well as a married pair of investors named Albert and Trudy Kallis, Lapin opened the first International House of Pancakes in 1958, located in Toluca Lake, California.

In addition to the sorta-exotic menu options, the House of Pancakes offered a colorful array of syrups, which went far beyond mere maple. (Strawberry syrup, blueberry syrup, boysenberry syrup! Are you not entertained?) Although the International House of Pancakes would shorten its name to the catchier IHOP in 1973, and some of the more eyebrow-raising menu options have gone away as tastes changed (fare thee well, boysenberry syrup), we can still applaud the adventurous spirit that went into the chain's founding.