IHOP confused thousands of people when it suddenly changed a single letter in its name.
A new burger menu prompted the acronym IHOb and attempted to shift the restaurant's focus
away from their signature pancake dishes.
But while their campaign spread faster as a result of social media, they're far from
the first restaurant to rebrand.
Several fast food establishments have had different names at some point or other.
Sometimes it’s subtle.
Other times, it changes to something completely different.
Here are just a few restaurants you probably didn't know were once called something else.
KFC
Now just going by a three-letter acronym, this fried chicken chain was once called Kentucky
Fried Chicken, the famous brainchild of Colonel Harland Sanders.
But the original name wasn't something Sanders came up with.
It was coined by Don Anderson, who was hired to paint a sign advertising Sanders' fried
chicken at the Harman Cafe in South Salt Lake, Utah.
He thought Kentucky Fried Chicken sounded like an exotic version of the classic comfort
food.
The name stuck around until 1991, when the company low-key announced it would be changing
to KFC.
It wasn't clear to customers however, who began speculating that the name was truncated
because KFC was using some kind of mutant chicken, and couldn't use the word "chicken"
in their branding.
In 2016, a post on the KFC website actually addressed the rumors.
It turns out, the name was changed because KFC was simply easier to say, and was already
being used by a number of people.
"We wanted to let our customers know that we had more for them to enjoy than just fried
chicken.
[...] We've always used 100% real chicken."
“This is finger-licking good.”
Subway
Subway might be a clever name for a shop that sells submarine sandwiches, but it wasn't
always called that.
Originally, the sandwich chain was named after Dr. Peter Buck, a nuclear physicist, who invested
$1,000 to help his friend Fred DeLuca open up a sandwich shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Pete's Super Submarines opened its doors in 1965, serving up sammies that cost less than
70 cents.
While naming a sandwich shop after a nuclear physicist is cool, Buck and DeLuca decided
Pete's Super Submarines wasn't cutting it.
Pete's Subway first appeared on signs in 1968, and was changed again to just Subway in 1974.
Not having his name above the restaurant door didn't seem to bother Buck very much.
His initial investment clearly paid for itself, as the company was valued at about $7.1 billion
dollars in 2017.
“There’s a delicious Subway food montage going on right behind me, isn’t there?”
Sonic Drive-In
With over 3,500 Sonic Drive-In restaurants in 44 states, it's easy to have your food
and drinks delivered to your car.
Back in 1953, however, customers knew the drive-in restaurant by a much different name:
Top Hat.
Conceived by Troy Smith, Top Hat opened in Shawnee, Oklahoma, where carhops brought root
beer and snacks to hungry customers.
In an era where drive-in restaurants were all the rage, Top Hat stood out for its innovation.
It was the first drive-in to utilize curbside speakers, letting customers place their orders
without ever leaving their cars.
Smith kept the roller skating carhops even after that particular trend died down in the
'60s, which helped meals get delivered to guests even quicker.
"Service at the Speed of Sound" became their slogan, and in 1959, the name was officially
changed to Sonic.
“Are we good at eating here or what?”
“Oh, yeah!”
Domino's
Pizza is usually associated with New York, but one of the most widely-recognized pizza
delivery companies actually originated in the Midwest.
For less than the cost of an iPhone, brothers James and Tom Monaghan became the proud owners
of a pizza shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
It was originally owned by Dominick DiVarti and lived under the name, DomiNick's.
When it came time to expand into more stores and locations, the original owner didn't want
his name on just any pizza place.
In 1965, through the suggestion of a delivery employee, Domino's was born.
“It’s Domino’s.
I have to go.”
The recognizable logo is a tribute to the early success of the company.
Shaped like a domino, the three dots represent the three original locations, including DomiNick's.
Chick-fil-A
Fried chicken on a bun has a lot to live up to, thanks to S. Truett Cathy's revolutionary
fast food chicken sandwich.
By using a pressure-fryer, he was able to create a plump, juicy fillet of chicken cooked
to perfection.
Add two buttered buns and a few pickles, and you've got a sandwich many have tried to recreate
for themselves, but fail to deliver on.
Standalone Chick-fil-A locations are now found across the US, but it all started back in
Cathy's original restaurant, the uniquely named Dwarf House.
Cathy opened up the first location in Hapeville, Georgia, in 1946, and its main purpose was
to sell diner-style food with a Southern touch.
Originally, the main focus was on beef dishes, not chicken.
But once Cathy started serving up his original family recipe for chicken sandwiches, customers
couldn't get enough.
Soon, Dwarf House-Chick-fil-A locations sprouted up across the rest of Georgia and the surrounding
areas.
The first official Chick-fil-A opened in a shopping center in in Atlanta in 1967.
The original Dwarf House is still open today, and still serves the sandwiches that launched
the franchise...chicken sandwiches, to be precise.
Boston Market
Boston Market opened its first location in Newton, Massachusetts in 1985.
Back then however, it was known as Boston Chicken.
The idea was simple: offer familiar home cooking, complete with traditional sides like corn
bread, mashed potatoes, and sautéed vegetables, to folks whose only other options were grocery
stores specializing in gourmet items.
The concept proved to be popular, with 217 stores making $154 million in annual sales
by the end of 1992.
As the company grew, so did the store's menu, adding turkey, meatloaf, and other homestyle
dishes, and the company rebranded in 1995 under the name Boston Market to better reflect
its offerings.
The name hasn't changed in over 20 years, but during Super Bowl LII, a few locations
in and around Philadelphia switched things up a bit: Boston Market became "Philly Market,"
in honor of the Philadelphia Eagles playing against the New England Patriots.
It was a temporary and hilarious move which boosted city pride during the Big Game, and
carried over even after the Eagles won.
R Taco
Restaurants that are named after their founders have a legacy all their own.
Going national, however, sometimes requires a name change so that it feels more like an
approachable product, and less like an exclusive location.
That's what happened to R Taco after it was purchased by Buffalo Wild Wings in 2015.
Originally called Rusty Taco, the chain had been named after the restaurant's founder
Rusty Fenton.
Fenton opened his first restaurant in 2010 in Dallas, Texas.
Unfortunately, Fenton wouldn't get to see his Mexican street-style taco legacy flourish;
he passed away in 2013 from cancer, less than two years before his business was acquired.
Buffalo Wild Wings changed the name because they wanted to ensure that what they were
serving would resonate with people across the country, not just with those who knew
Fenton personally.
They have big plans for R Taco however.
With 26 locations, the restaurant plans on expanding nationwide to ensure what Fenton
started grows bigger and better than ever.