Village Inn

Village Inn is a casual dining restaurant chain in the United States. Its restaurants are known for their breakfast menu items, including buttermilk pancakes, skillets, crepes, omelettes, and eggs. In additional to their robust breakfast offerings, they also feature a variety of salads, sandwiches, burgers, melts and dinner items. Their pies win awards every year from the American Pie Council (APC).

Village Inn's parent company, VICORP, is based in Denver, Colorado.

History

Village Inn was founded by Colorado natives James Mola and Merton Anderson, who opened the first Village Inn Pancake House in Denver in 1958. [cite web|author=VICORP Restaurants|title=Village Inn: History|url=http://www.villageinn.com/about_us/history.html|accessdate=2007-02-04] They incorporated as Village Inn Pancake House, Inc., in December 1959 and began franchising in 1961. In 1982 Village Inn became the publicly-traded VICORP Restaurants, Inc. VICORP acquired the Poppin' Fresh Pies chain from Pillsbury in May 1983, renaming it Bakers Square.

In 1984 VICORP acquired 71 restaurants from Ralston Purina's Continental Restaurant Systems division and 175 former Sambo's restaurants in California, Florida, and Arizona. The California locations were converted to Bakers Square restaurants while the Florida and Arizona locations were converted to Village Inn, but the conversions led to a decline in profits for the company and 15 of the converted Florida locations would close by 1989.cite web|author=FundingUniverse.com|title=VICORP Restaurants, Inc., Company History|url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/VICORP-Restaurants-Inc-Company-History.html|accessdate=2007-02-04]

By the end of the 1980s, "Pancake House" was dropped from the name of the chain as Village Inn began offering lunch and dinner menus in addition to breakfast. During the early 1990s, all Village Inn restaurants underwent a large-scale renovation that featured new green mansard roofs and neon signage. In May 2001 the investment firms of Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison, Inc., and BancBoston Capital acquired VICORP and the company has been privately held ever since.

On April 3, 2008, VICORP filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code. VICORP closed 56 company-owned restaurants as a result of the move, leaving a total of 343 Village Inn and Bakers Square locations. [cite news|first=David|last=Milstead|title=Bankrupt Village Inn shutting down local restaurants|url=http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/apr/03/village-inn-parent-files-bankruptcy/|work=Rocky Mountain News|date=2008-04-03] Village Inn restaurants are found in the Midwest states such as Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, and Nebraska, the Western United States, Texas, Virginia, and Florida. [cite web|author=VICORP Restaurants|title=Find a Village Inn Location|url=http://storelocator.vicorpinc.com/vi_index.aspx?concept=vi|accessdate=2008-04-03]

References

External links

* [http://www.villageinn.com/ Village Inn website]
* [http://www.piecouncil.org/ American Pie Council]