14 Things to Know Before Eating at IHOP

National Pancake Day may make you think of one thing and one thing only: Free pancakes. While that's true—at least for the past 11 years—IHOP's also used it as a way to raise money for local charities. To date, the brand has donated $20 million, and if you stacked up all of the free flapjacks, you'd have a supersized-stack that'd be 19 miles tall.

Block off your calendar: For the first month and a half of the year, IHOP hosts an "all-you-can-eat" pancakes promotion, letting you order platters of either buttermilk pancakes (five at a time), or two pancakes with hash browns, eggs and a side of meat. You can keep getting fresh orders until you've (A) had your fill, (B) slipped into a food coma, or (C) been asked to stop via loving intervention.

If you were the kid who was always picked last in gym class, there's still hope you can find your ideal team: Competitive pancake eating. For the past two years during the All-You-Can-Eat pancake promotion, IHOP allowed you to form a team, eat as many buttermilk pancakes as your squad can muster, and stack up the conquered plates to become the Empty Plate Stack Challenge Champions.

Last year's winner, Georgia-based Team Tankbone ate 68 pancakes between the seven of them, piling up 34 plates total.

They took home a trophy, customized shirts and gluttonous bragging rights for life.

Sign up for IHOP's Pancake Revolution email list, and you'll snag a voucher for a free order of Rooty Tooty Fresh N' Fruity Pancakes—as well as another batch every year on your birthday.

It's no secret that people love pumpkin spice anything, and pancakes are no exception. The chain introduced three new menu items this past fall to meet fans' insatiable appetites: chicken and pumpkin spice waffles, pumpkin waffle sundaes and pumpkin spice pancakes. There's no word whether they'll come back this fall, so we can only cross our fingers until then.

IHOP opened its first store in Toluca Lake, CA, in 1958. At that time, the average American's annual income was $5,000, a loaf of bread cost 19 cents, and Elvis Presley had started serving in the U.S. Army, according to the brand's 56th birthday announcement.

The first store outside of the U.S. opened in Canada in 1969. It didn't adopt the IHOP acronym for four more years.

In 2005, IHOP introduced funnel cakes as a limited-time offering, and—much to the chagrin of carnival and state fair vendors nationwide—became the largest seller of the food in the entire country. (Sadly, they're no longer on the menu, but that doesn't mean they won't come back.)

Even more surprising: The brand goes through 5.3 million pounds of t-bone steaks annually. Let that marinate for a second.

First, its griddles are set to 350 degrees F, which creates an evenly cooked, golden brown pancake. Second, its cooks don't use butter or oil on its griddles, which can create a webbed, lacy look, says Marie Grimm, vice president of culinary innovation.

For an extra 99 cents, you can get real Vermont maple syrup, but only at stores within the state, the New York Times reported. (The "old-fashioned" syrup that comes standard in all stores is artificially flavored.)

Okay, so it didn't get as much play as Ed Helms's Mike Tyson-esque face tattoo, but still, IHOP's prominently featured as the site of the low-key bachelor party that kicks off the second film. You can watch the chain's cameo here (but maybe with headphones if kids are around; explicit language and all that).