Denny's
| Denny's logo | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Casual dining restaurant |
| Founded | 1953 |
| Headquarters | Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA |
Key people | Harold Butler, Founder |
| Website | www.dennys.com |
Denny's is the largest full-service family restaurant chain in the United States. It operates over 2,500 restaurants in the United States, Canada, Curaçao, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico. Denny's is known for its 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year operations, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert around the clock. Many of their restaurants are located in proximity to freeway exits and in service areas of small towns and remote areas. Unlike many other restaurant chains, Denny's does not close on holidays or nights, except where required by law.
History
Denny's was founded under the name Danny's Donuts in 1953 by Harold Butler in Lakewood, California. Butler expanded to 20 restaurants by 1959, when he renamed the chain to Denny's, a name that could be trademarked, unlike "Danny's," which was in common usage. The business continued to grow and by 1981, there were over 1,000 restaurants in all 50 U.S. states. In 1977, Denny's introduced the still-popular Grand Slam breakfast. In 1994, Denny's became the largest corporate sponsor of Save the Children, a national charity.
Denny's headquarters were located in Irvine, California until 1991. At that time, the main office was moved to the Spartanburg, South Carolina headquarters of the parent company Trans World Corporation that acquired Denny's in 1987. Eventually, Denny's operations dominated the parent company to such an extent that Trans World Corporation, after several name changes, became Denny's Corporation. It now trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol Nasdaq: DENN. Today, Denny's operates about 1,600 restaurants in 49 U.S. states (Wyoming is the only state without a Denny's), Canada and Mexico. There are also about 578 Denny's restaurants in Japan operated under a license by a subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings.
For much of its history, Denny's was notable for offering a free meal to anyone on their birthday. The offer only included a limited number of meal options from a special birthday menu. The promotional ritual ceased in 1993, though occasionally individual franchises will continue the tradition.
Competitors
Competing restaurants include IHOP, Shoney's, Bob Evans, Waffle House, Cracker Barrel, and Steak n Shake.
Dateline NBC report
In October of 2004, Dateline NBC aired a segment titled "Dirty Dining". This segment examined the ten most popular family and casual dining chains in the United States, including Bob Evans, Red Lobster, Waffle House, Chili's, Ruby Tuesday, IHOP, Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Outback Steakhouse, and Denny's. As part of the segment, the producers examined the health inspection records for 100 restaurants over 15 months, and totaled up all of the critical violations, or violations that can result in adverse effects to the customers' health.
Denny's had the fewest violations of all ten chains evaluated by Dateline and was the only one to average fewer than one violation per restaurant. Denny's and Waffle House were the only two chains studied that operate chain-wide 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year–an important factor to consider, as generally (many IHOPs operate 24 hours as well), around-the-clock restaurants gather more health code violations. Waffle House ranked the worst of the ten chains examined; Denny's, however, did not seem to be affected by the lack of downtime. Denny's attributes this relative success to its supposed adherence to the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)—the science of food safety.
The "Denny's Diner" prototype
In 1998, Denny's reinvented its image and launched Denny's Diner. The "Diner" was a "googie" or Retro-style restaurant, featuring bright red, green, and yellow colors, jukeboxes, lava lamps, retro-style paintings, etc. – The company originally planned to change every Denny's restaurant to Denny's Diner, but financing prohibited it. Eventually, Denny's Diner was merged into the typical Denny's, requiring all locations to have '50s-themed interiors.
Denny's in popular culture
- In the 1994 Christmas movie The Santa Clause, the characters played by Tim Allen and Eric Lloyd eat at a Denny's restaurant on Christmas Eve after Allen's character singes their home-cooked turkey dinner. He describes the chain as an "American institution", a line which was immediately followed by an interior shot of the restaurant focusing on Japanese diners.
- A Rush Limbaugh parody commercial features "Reginald Denny's", based on an incident during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. It includes the announcer calling the restaurant "Reginald Lenny's" (before being punched), which was inspired by an elderly customer calling the real chain "Lenny's" in the real commercial.
- In 1994, Buckshot Lefonque recorded an instrumental song called "Breakfast at Denny's" which featured small excerpts from Jay Leno's routine on the early-1990s discrimination incident. "Denny's say that they don't discriminate, but you gotta wonder when that chef's hat is pointed...."
- In the television series Family Guy, Peter decides to punish his body by eating at Denny's. In another episode, Brian is shown as overreacting and yelling at a crying baby due to his food being overcooked. In another episode titled Da' Boom, the family establishes a new town after Quahog is destroyed during Y2K. Chris Griffen tells the family to build "two Denny's so we can always say, 'Let's not go there. Let's go to the good one.'"
- Bubba "Whoop-Ass" Wilson of The Monsters In The Morning wrote and sang a song about the diner called "Drunk at Denny's"
References