(1953) The restaurant originally opened as ''Danny's Donuts'' in 1954 by Richard Jezak and
Harold Butler, located at the intersection of
Bellflower and
Del Amo boulevards in Lakewood, California. Two years later, after Jezak left the chain of six stores, Butler changed its concept, shifting it from a donut shop to a coffee shop with store No. Danny's Donuts was renamed Danny's Coffee Shops and changed its operation to 24 hours. During the 1950s, Los Angeles architects
Armet & Davis created a new prototype building with a boomerang-shaped roof that became a model for stores built nationwide. They also designed a second prototype in 1965 with a zigzag shingled roof. These designs enabled
Googie architecture to spread across America. Many Denny's locations were built near freeway off-ramps, leading to increasingly larger signage. In 1961, two years after changing its name to Denny's Coffee Shops to avoid confusion with the
Los Angeles restaurant chain Coffee Dan's, it changed its name again to simply Denny's. By acquiring a 47% stake in TWC in 1992, the
private equity firm
KKR encouraged it to sell its non-core businesses. In 1994, Denny's became the largest corporate sponsor of
Save the Children, a national charity. All but six Denny's locations closed for the first time ever for Christmas 1988; this was problematic because many restaurants had been built without locks, and others had reportedly lost their keys. Also in 1994, it began renovating its stores with a lighter color scheme; select locations also began serving
Baskin-Robbins ice cream for a short time.
Houston, Texas, was the test market for the chain-wide renovation. After changing its name from TWC to The Flagstar Companies, this firm filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 12, 1997. Denny's dominated its operations to such an extent that Flagstar changed its name again to ''Denny's Corporation'', trading on the
Nasdaq under the symbol DENN. Along with their famous breakfasts and
hamburgers, Denny’s introduced the
Beyond Burger as a
vegetarian alternative in 2020. It was discontinued in 2023 and replaced with
Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Patty. On November 3, 2025, it was announced that Denny's Corporation would be acquired by TriArtisan Capital Advisors, Treville Capital Group and Yadav Enterprises, expecting to complete the $620 million transaction and take it private in the first quarter of 2026. The transaction was completed in January 2026. On December 2, 2025,
People Magazine reported that the chain had announced it would close 150 underperforming locations across the U.S.
Denny's Diner prototype , inspired by 1950s culture (March 2008) (November 2017) north of
Laredo, Texas, handles a considerable trucker clientele (July 2014). Some Denny's restaurants employ the "diner" concept, using modular buildings resembling classic 1950s diners. In May 1997, the first Denny's Classic Diner was opened in
Fort Myers, Florida. The diner concept was created by Ron, Marcia, Marc, and Todd York, the principals of Denny's Franchisee SWFRI, Inc. Today, there are about 40 Denny's Diners in the United States. Additionally, several diners resemble modular buildings but are actually
stick construction.
Domestic and international growth It opened its first restaurant in Australia in December 1982, in the suburb of Forest Hill,
Melbourne. The Australian franchise was owned by
Ansett Australia and expanded into other states throughout the 1980s. However, changing tastes of the Australian consumer led to the sale of the chain in 1989 and its closure shortly after that. In July 2010, Denny's presence in the United States saw a major expansion when
Pilot Flying J started opening Denny's locations inside their Flying J-branded
truck stop locations. 123 Pilot Flying J conversions were eventually completed. In June 2012, Denny's opened a location in the
Las Américas International Airport, its first location in an airport and its first in the
Dominican Republic. In July 2012, Denny's announced it had signed an agreement with a franchisee to open 50 restaurants in southern China over 15 years, beginning in 2013. This was Denny's largest international development deal at that time. However, the deal was cancelled before any restaurants opened. On August 29, 2014, Denny's opened its first location in
New York City, with some patrons waiting as long as two hours before its official opening to eat there. Located in
Lower Manhattan, the location is designed to be more upscale than the typical Denny's, serves alcohol, and offers a location-exclusive $300 Grand Cru Slam, which is the standard Grand Slam Breakfast served with a bottle of
Dom Pérignon. It closed in January 2018. In November 2017, it was announced that Denny's was to open its first UK restaurant in
Swansea in December 2017 as part of Parc Tawe's 15 million redevelopment scheme, occupying a 4,000 sq ft unit. The restaurant opened on Christmas Day 2017 for the homeless people in the city of Swansea, although the official opening to the general public was on December 27. In 2022, Denny's acquired Orlando-based chain Keke's Breakfast Cafe for $82.5 million. During an October 22, 2024, investor day, Denny's announced it would expand Keke's nationwide while closing 150 Denny’s restaurants in the following 12–18 months. At the end of 2023 there were 1,602 Denny's restaurants, with the company owning and operating 66 with the remaining 1,582 under a
franchising model; 1,445 of Denny's 1,602 restaurants are located in the United States (including the
District of Columbia), 84 in
Canada, 15 in
Mexico, 15 in
Puerto Rico, 12 in
Philippines, 7 in
New Zealand, 6 in
Honduras, 5 in the
UAE, 2 in
Guatemala, 3 in
Costa Rica, 2 in
Guam, 3 in
El Salvador, 1 in
Indonesia, 1 in
Curaçao and 1 in the
United Kingdom. Denny's previously had a location in Chile. The U.S. states with the most Denny's restaurants are
California (363), Texas (204) and Florida (124). There are also about 578 Denny's restaurants in
Japan operated independently under a license by a subsidiary of
Seven & I Holdings since 1984. The first Denny's restaurant in Japan opened on the first floor of the
Ito-Yokado in Kamiōoka (
:ja:上大岡),
Kōnan-ku, Yokohama,
Kanagawa Prefecture on April 27, 1974, however, it closed on March 20, 2017, on account of the demolition of the building of Ito-Yokado. == Health inspection records ==