GLENDALE, Calif. — Last year, IHOP grabbed the internet’s attention when it changed its name for an advertising campaign to IHOb (International House of Burgers) causing an intense reaction online.
Now the California-based restaurant chain plans to change things up by introducing its new Steakburger “pancakes.”
The company will offer three new menu items that include the black angus beef pancakes made from all-natural 100 percent USDA choice. The first is the Big IHOP Pancake (Burger), which features a buttermilk pancake stuck in between two Steakburger patties. The burger is topped with American cheese, hickory-smoked bacon and house-made IHOP sauce.
The Garlic Butter Pancake (Burger) is topped with house made Gilroy garlic butter, hickory-smoked bacon, white cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo along with the beef patties.
Finally, the Loaded Philly Pancake (Burger) features sautéed onions and peppers and covered with melted White Cheddar cheese and Cheddar cheese sauce to go with the Steakburger patties.
“When we launched our new Ultimate Steakburgers last year, what better way to show the world that we take our burgers as seriously as we take our pancakes than by announcing that we’d be changing our name to IHOb … temporarily,” said Brad Haley, chief marketing officer at IHOP. “That was hard for a lot of people to accept since they’d always known IHOP primarily as the breakfast and pancake place, so they took to social media to tell us - often in no uncertain terms - to stay in our lane and stick to pancakes.”
Haley also admitted that it hopes that the latest push to change IHOP’s branding of burgers will garner attention on social media again.
“There were over 3.3 million tweets about #IHOb last year, and some of them weren’t very nice,” Haley said. “So, our lead creative agency, Droga5, created a digital experience to engage last year’s naysayers and convert haters into eaters.
The new Steakburger lineup joins IHOP’s other burger offerings, including The Classic, The Classic with Bacon, Mega Monster, Cowboy BBQ, The Big Brunch and Jalapeño Kick.