Village Inn
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Village Inn is a casual dining restaurant chain in the United States. Its restaurants are known for their breakfast menu items, including buttermilk pancakes, skillets, crepes, omelettes, and eggs. In additional to their robust breakfast offerings, they also feature a variety of salads, sandwiches, burgers, melts and dinner items. Their pies win awards every year from the American Pie Council (APC).
Village Inn's parent company, VICORP, is based in Denver, Colorado.
[edit] History
Village Inn was founded by Colorado natives James Mola and Merton Anderson, who opened the first Village Inn Pancake House in Denver in 1958.[1] They incorporated as Village Inn Pancake House, Inc., in December 1959 and began franchising in 1961. In 1982 Village Inn became the publicly-traded VICORP Restaurants, Inc. VICORP acquired the Poppin' Fresh Pies chain from Pillsbury in May 1983, renaming it Bakers Square.
In 1984 VICORP acquired 71 restaurants from Ralston Purina's Continental Restaurant Systems division and 175 former Sambo's restaurants in California, Florida, and Arizona. The California locations were converted to Bakers Square restaurants while the Florida and Arizona locations were converted to Village Inn, but the conversions led to a decline in profits for the company and 15 of the converted Florida locations would close by 1989.[2]
By the end of the 1980s, "Pancake House" was dropped from the name of the chain as Village Inn began offering lunch and dinner menus in addition to breakfast. During the early 1990s, all Village Inn restaurants underwent a large-scale renovation that featured new green mansard roofs and neon signage. In May 2001 the investment firms of Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison, Inc., and BancBoston Capital acquired VICORP and the company has been privately held ever since.[2]
As of February 2007, Village Inn has 262 restaurants in 20 states. Their restaurants are in the Midwest, the Western United States, Texas, Virginia, and Florida.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ VICORP Restaurants. Village Inn: History. Retrieved on February 4, 2007.
- ^ a b FundingUniverse.com. VICORP Restaurants, Inc., Company History. Retrieved on February 4, 2007.
- ^ VICORP Restaurants. Find a Village Inn Near You. Retrieved on February 4, 2007.
