Denny’s Corp.

Denny’s Corp. is a midscale family-dining brand known for its Grand Slam breakfasts and such value offerings as the $2-$4-$6-$8 menu.

Headquartered in Spartanburg, S.C., Denny’s in 2021 started two virtual delivery-only brands, The Burger Den and The Melt Down, which were available to the mostly franchised system. As of May 2021, The Burger Den was available at 1,100 locations and The Melt Down was in 350 units.

The roots of Denny’s go back to 1953, when Harold Butler and Richard Jezak opened a donut stand in Lakewood, Calif., and called it Danny’s Donuts. After Jezak’s departure from the then-six-store chain, Butler created and changed the concept from a donut shop to a coffee shop.

In 1959, to avoid confusion with Los Angeles restaurant Coffee Dan’s, Butler changed the name from Danny’s Coffee Shops to Denny’s Coffee Shops.

Denny’s introduced The Grand Slam breakfast in 1977 in Atlanta as a nod to homerun slugger Hank Aaron.

The Denny’s on Demand online ordering platform and smartphone app were introduced in 2017.

As of March 31, 2021, Denny’s had 1,649 franchised, licensed and company-owned restaurants globally, including 148 restaurants in Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Philippines, New Zealand, Honduras, the United Arab Emirates, Costa Rica, Guam, Guatemala, El Salvador, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.

Headquarters: Spartanburg, S.C.

Segment: Midscale Dining

Restaurant Segment: FSR Midscale

Number of Locations: 1,504

2020 Sales: $2.4 billion

Annual Growth:

Source: Datassential Firefly 500

CEO: John Miller