Flipping for flapjacks at the new Covington IHOP

Flipping all kinds of pancakes became a hot item in Covington this week. John Khauv opened an International House of Pancakes restaurant, also known by its acronym IHOP, in Covington featuring 16 different types of pancakes ready for flipping and serving to hungry customers.

By Dennis Box • November 4, 2010 2:11 pm
Leonardo Vergara pours pancake batter on the flat top griddle at the newly opened International House of Pancakes in Covington. It is located in the Covington Esplanade shopping center.
Leonardo Vergara pours pancake batter on the flat top griddle at the newly opened International House of Pancakes in Covington. It is located in the Covington Esplanade shopping center.

Flipping all kinds of pancakes became a hot item in Covington this week.

John Khauv opened an International House of Pancakes restaurant, also known by its acronym IHOP, in Covington featuring 16 different types of pancakes ready for flipping and serving to hungry customers.

The restaurant is located at 27149 185th Ave. S.E., in the Esplanade shopping center where Home Depot is located, between the Verizon Wireless store and Mizu.

The Covington IHOP is the third for Khauv in this state and he has a development agreement with the Glendale, Calif. pancake company to build five more in Pierce and King counties.

Currently Khauv owns an IHOP in Tukwilla and Federal Way.

Once the Covington restaurant is through the initial stages of opening the doors he hopes to build his next IHOP in Puyallup.

Khauv said he looks at the demographics and growth of an area when planning a restaurant opening.

“I started out as a dishwasher 25 years ago in Sacramento (Calif.) and owned my first restaurant in 2000 in Folsom (Calif.),” Khauv said.

He moved to this area in 2007.

The Covington restaurant is a roomy 5,000 square feet, which Khauv said is larger than most IHOP restaurants. There is a separate dinning area for banquets and meetings.

Khauv said the restaurant will serve more than 100,000 pancakes in a single day.

The IHOP has a complete breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. The restaurant is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

The business has about 110 employees and seats 200 customers.