Flip’d by IHOP is now hiring ahead of a late September opening in Downtown Silver Spring, a company representative has confirmed to the Source.
The storefront’s window scrims have been removed, and construction crews are putting the finishing touches on the restaurant.
We reported last year that Flip’d by IHOP, a new fast-casual concept from the chain known for its signature pancakes, will take the place once filled by Asian Bistro, next to Panera at 8537 Georgia Ave in the Downtown Silver Spring development. A company representative told the Source in January that the restaurant was slated to open this summer; a late September opening is not far off from the original estimate.
One of the restaurant’s principals, Sunil Shrestha, also is the president of Universolutions, LLC, a northern Virginia software developer. The company was primarily a government contractor but has switched to a focus on restaurants and real estate.
Flip’d is a new concept started by IHOP, Shrestha said to the Source last year, adding that something is missing from IHOP—the quick service sector.
The concept had been in the works for a few years (Flip’d was announced in 2019) and is now being marketed. Shrestha saw it as a way to fill that missing niche.
“Its focus is mainly in the urban concept, where the foot traffic is high, where the office density is high, and where daytime and night population is high,” Shrestha said last year. He sees all that in the Silver Spring location.
In addition, his company has had locations on Peterson property in the past, so he was familiar with them; IHOP liked the location as well.
The Flip’d menu will include pancakes, breakfast burritos, pancake bowls with a variety of sweet and savory toppings, egg sandwiches, burgers and other sandwiches, salads and grab-and-go items, according to a company announcement. It will target day and night diners.
“It’s something different from what you see in the market right now in the quick-service sector,” Shrestha said last year.
The Downtown Silver Spring location is part of a pandemic-delayed national rollout of the Flip’d by IHOP brand. The concept’s second location opened earlier this year in New York City; the first opened in Lawrence, Kansas last year.
Photo by David Lay