By James Lomuscio
The change at Westport’s International House of Pancakes (IHOP) on Post Road East came overnight on Dec. 1. True, the time-honored blue roof, a town mainstay since the late 1960s, had been painted green a couple of weeks earlier, but only a few diehard customers raised eyebrows.
A Pancake By Any Other Name: IHOP, a mainstay for decades on Post Road East, was recently renamed the Westport Pancake House & Restaurant. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) James Lomuscio for WestportNow.com
“Some people asked me why I was painting the roof,” owner Noreen Thomes recalled in her signature Irish brogue today as customers waited in line for tables. “I just told them I liked the color green.”
But this past Thursday morning motorists spied more than a new roof to realize that change is inevitable. IHOP is now the Westport Pancake House & Restaurant.
“IHOP didn’t want to continue the lease here, so the landlord came to me,” said Thomes, who had been paying the rent as well as royalties to IHOP since she bought the franchaise 18 years ago.
Thomes, who lives in Southport, worked out a deal not only to keep the restaurant in town but make it truly her own. She insisted that loyal customers need not worry that the name change will mean a change in the menu or price increases.
“We’ll have our own menu, but pretty much the same foods,” she said.
Also the same is that high-pitched ceiling sporting flags like the UN. And customers need not worry about images of $4 lattes conjured up by the Westport moniker. Waitresses with coffee pots and eager to offer refills still patrol the aisles.
Just one thing, cautions Thomes. Though it has been known for years as IHOP, don’t call it WEHOP.
“We’re the Westport Pancake House,” she stressed.
