Breakfast With Luis, Manager of IHOP

Business: International House of Pancakes (IHOP)

Employee: Luis Funez, 34, Manager

When we visited IHOP, it was breakfast time. It was a weekday morning and the restaurant wasn't very crowded. The waitstaff were zipping around the restaurant serving up coffee. The manager sat down with us to talk about what it's like to work for this local branch of a larger franchise, expressing his happiness and enthusiasm for the company. He also kept an eye on his staff throughout the conversation, making sure the customers were getting their needs met. We also noticed that this local IHOP had partnered with a non-profit organization called Building Bridges to do outreach for Child Abuse Prevention month in April, as they had a variety of children's coloring sheets available that customers could color and add to the wall to spread awareness.

I’ve been the manager of this store for about ten months now—I’m originally from Los Angeles. The headquarters of this company is a franchise that owns about 25 restaurants. I transferred from Los Angeles to this area—they actually relocated all of my family and myself.

Do you live in El Cerrito? I live in Richmond, to be exact. My wife works in the Walnut Creek store.

You and your wife both work for IHOP? Yes, we both work for the same company.

How long have you been working for IHOP? I’ve been working for this company about ten months now.

How do you like the area? I like the area. I lived here before, about ten years ago, when I was starting with management experience and the management career. I started at Jack in the Box.

This is my first experience working for IHOP. I really like it—I like breakfast. It has a different touch. I interact with the people and get to know people more. It’s different than a fast-paced restaurant like Jack in the Box, (there) you don’t get to see people, you don’t get to interact with them as much as you really want. Even as a manager, you rarely see them, and when you come across the customer it’s when they have a complaint. You don’t see the manager of McDonald’s probably (except) when they are in a rush or when they are in the middle of trying to console stuff around. (Here),  I know the regulars, I talk to them, I ask them how their meal is going. If I see them limping, I ask them, “What happened? Are you OK? How do you feel?” If you don’t see them for a while you ask, “Are you OK?” You actually have that touch (here). I like that.

And IHOP does fundraisers for the community? We have a few fundraisers. I was sharing about National Pancake Day. All of the IHOP’s gather together and raise money for a group cause which is the Children’s Medical Network, and it’s everywhere, in TV, in newspapers—this has been around for a few years now.

I really like it. We’re part of a community, people are excited. Even the kids from high school—at the beginning they were like, “Oh free pancakes,” but after a while they actually bring a dollar or whatever they have and throw it in the box. It’s very exciting. I feel good, even though the servers donate. It was really hard to tell, since the pancakes were free, but the servers were engaging, even the leader of the community stopped by, even the media was on top of it. That’s the good thing about this job.