A second dual-branded Applebee's-IHOP restaurant is headed to Greater Cincinnati, with the combined concept set to open in December 2026 at 9540 Colerain Avenue in Colerain Township. The restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner from both brands, with daily hours running from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m.
According to WLWT, an official opening date for the Colerain Township location has not yet been announced, even though the restaurant is expected to begin serving customers next month. The menu will mix pancakes and other IHOP breakfast staples with Applebee's boneless wings, burgers and appetizers, giving diners a single spot to grab both a morning stack and a late-night burger.
Marshall Claycamp, vice president of Company Restaurants for Dine Brands Global, said the company is excited to expand the dining concept in the Cincinnati area, offering both IHOP dishes and Applebee's favorites. He added that pairing the two brands gives customers variety throughout the day, whether they're after breakfast, a family dinner or a late-night meal, the station's report notes.
Cincinnati's First Dual-Branded Location Set the Template
The Colerain Township restaurant follows a similar dual-branded location that opened earlier in 2026 in Cincinnati's Oakley neighborhood, per the same account. That Oakley restaurant also runs daily from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m., giving the region a preview of how the combined menu and extended hours play out in practice.
The format isn't unique to Cincinnati. Dine Brands has been rolling out co-branded Applebee's-IHOP restaurants across the country, including a fourth location in the Louisville area, according to Louisville Business First. In September 2026, the company also opened an eighth dual-branded restaurant in the greater San Antonio market, as announced by Dine Brands, which said it remained on track to open roughly 80 domestic dual-branded restaurants by the end of 2026 while approaching 50 locations nationwide.
Why Dine Brands Keeps Doubling Up
The nationwide push traces back to Seguin, Texas, where Dine Brands opened the first U.S. dual-branded Applebee's-IHOP restaurant to the public on February 18, 2025. At the time, the company said 14 additional dual-branded locations were slated to break ground and open across the country through 2026.
Dine Brands has framed the co-branded format as an efficiency play, with two restaurant brands sharing one kitchen, one point-of-sale system and cross-trained staff, according to Restaurant Business. The outlet reported that sales at the first dozen or so dual-branded restaurants have run 1.5 to 2.5 times higher than before conversion, with restaurant-level margins nearly doubling, and that executives have said at least 15% of sales at these locations come from Applebee's in the morning hours, with a similar share from IHOP in the evenings.
Separately, Restaurant Dive reported that Dine Brands opened 24 units in a recent first quarter, compared with just 10 a year earlier, and that sales at four company-owned dual-branded restaurants ran about 2.5 times higher than their previous single-branded locations. Restaurant Business also reported that Dine Brands sees potential for as many as 900 co-branded Applebee's-IHOP restaurants nationwide over the next decade, about half of them new builds. For Colerain Township, the immediate question is simpler: when the doors actually open for pancakes, wings and everything in between.
