Denny's is the largest full-service family restaurant chain in the United States, with over 1600 restaurants including the western part of Canada especially Alberta, parts of southern Ontario and New Zealand. Denny's is known for its 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year operations, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert around the clock. Many of their stores are located in close proximity to freeway exits and in service areas of small towns and remote areas.

History

Denny's was founded under the name Danny's Donuts in 1953 by Harold Butler in Lakewood, California. Butler expanded to 20 different restaurants by 1959, when he renamed the chain to Denny's. The business continued to grow, and by 1981 there were over 1000 restaurants. 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.

New parent company

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 . Denny's operates restaurants in 49 states, 2 territories and 4 foreign countries, including Japan.

"Dirty Dining"

In October of 2004, Dateline NBC aired a segment titled "Dirty Dining". This segment examined the 10 most popular family and casual dining chains, including Bob Evans, Red Lobster, Waffle House, Chili's, Ruby Tuesday, IHOP, Applebee's, 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 deleterious 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 24 hours a day–an important factor to consider, as generally, 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. This fact probably came as a surprise to many, but it demonstrates that Denny's is dedicated to the principles of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point)—the science of food safety.

Controversy

During the 1990s, Denny's was involved in a series of discrimination lawsuits involving several cases of servers denying or providing inferior service to minorities, especially African American customers. After settling a class action lawsuit for $54.4 million, Denny's rolled out an industry-leading racial sensitivity training program for all of its employees. Denny's has also improved its public relations image by featuring African Americans in many of its commercials, including a commercial featuring Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford. In 2001, Denny's was chosen by Fortune magazine as the "Best Company for Minorities," and has consistently remained near the top of the list since. Although their image has not yet been completely untarnished, Denny's has made great strides in eliminating discrimination.

External links

• Official Site
• Project Denny's: a Denny's travelogue