🠈 Village Inn 🠊
Village Inn
Village Inn, also known as vi, is a chain of restaurants noted for its all day breakfast, traditional American cuisine and pies.
When I visited the site in October 2018 they listed 205 restaurants in 21 states. There sister company Baker's Square listed 41 restaurants in the midwest. The company is part of the American Blue Ribbon Holdings owned by Fidelity National Financial.
In 2010, the company renamed its network of pie bakeries: Legendary Baking. This is a Youtube video about the pies.
Corporate History
American Blue Ribbon Holdings is the current owner of vi. So I will begin the corporate History with the acquisition.
- 2009: The American Blue Ribbon Holdings division of Fidelity National Financial and Newport Global Advisors acquired Village Inn
History of Village Inn
Village Inn is a chain of restaurants that started in Denver.
- 1958: James Mola and Merton Anderson opened Village Inn Pancake House in Denver and incorporated the following year.
- 1961: The company began franchising with first franchise in Tampa.
- 1982: The company had its IPO as VICORP Restaurants.
- 1983: VICORP purchased Poppin' Fresh Pies from Pillsbury which it renamed Baker's Square.
- 1969: This chain started as Mrs. C's as a bakery specializing in pies in Des Moines, Ia.
- 197?: Pillsbury acquired Mrs C's and changed the name to Poppin' Fresh Pies.
- 1984: VICORP purchased 71 restaurants from Ralston Purina's Continental Restaurant Systems division for $61 m.
- 1984: VICORP converted 175 Sambo's restaurants fpr $57 million.
- 198?: VICORP dropped the term "Pancake House" from its name.
- 1990: Accounting irregularities resulted in an investor class action lawsuit against the company.
- 1993: VICORP purchased the rights Angel’s Diner from founder Eric A. Holm who had also sold the rights to Golden Corral causing a multi-million dollar trademark lawsuit.
- 2001: VICORP was taken private by Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison Inc. and BancBoston Capital.
- 2008, VICORP filed Chapter 11. They closed 56 company-owned restaurants. There were 343 Village Inn and Bakers Square locations.
- 2010: ABRH rebranded its chain of bakeries as Legendary Baking.
- 2010: ABRH acquired the Max & Erma's chain of 87 burger joints based in Ohio.
- 2012: FNF acquired O'Charley's (CHUX) which also owned the Ninety-Nine and Stone River chains for $221m.
- 2016: ABRH sold Max and Erma's to Glacier Restaurant Group.
- Funding Universe - Vicorp History (Drawn 10/8/2018)
- Wikipedia - Village Inn (Drawn 10/8/2018)
- NY Times - Vicorp's Big Buying Spree (Drawn 10/8/2018)
- FNF - FNF Acquires O'Charley's (Drawn 10/8/2018)
- Phoenix Color - Dining: Village Inn
- Boulder Color - Dining: Village Inn
- Colorado Springs Color - Dining: Village Inn
- Denver Color - Dining: Village Inn
- Fort Collins Color - Dining: Village Inn
- Garfield Colorado Links - Dining: Village Inn
- Grand Junction - Dining: Village Inn
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- Logan Utah - Dining: Village Inn
- Ogden, Utah - Dining: Village Inn
- Provo Utah - Dining: Village Inn
- Saint George - Dining: Village Inn
- Salt Lake Sites - American: Village Inn
- Cheyenne, Wyoming. US - Dining: Village Inn