IHOP plans to leave its restaurant at 651 Montauk Highway in West Babylon and reopen less than half a mile away, in a bigger building at 1035 Montauk Highway. The new space is 5,560 square feet and is described as seating 198 guests, though one listing gives 196. No opening date has been confirmed.
The details come mainly from a local report by Hoodline, published October 15, which draws on Newsday coverage, Town of Babylon planning records and the real estate broker’s listing. This is not a wire-service story, and most of it rests on that one report, so treat the specifics as reported rather than confirmed by the company.
What is moving, and why
The current restaurant sits at the corner of Albermarle Avenue. The new site is inside the Great South Bay Shopping Center, a 470,000-square-foot complex. An IHOP representative told Newsday, as quoted by Hoodline, that the new location offers more room for guests to dine in. That is the only reason on the record.
It is a short hop. The two addresses are on the same road, so most regulars would see this as a new building rather than a new neighborhood. Hoodline notes the current location serves Lindenhurst, North Babylon and West Islip.
The permit trail
Under Chapter 213 of the Babylon Town Code, a restaurant with more than 16 seats needs a special exception permit from the Planning Board. According to Hoodline, the application was filed August 13, a public hearing followed on September 28, and the board approved the permit on October 5. One linked public record carried a headline saying the board “reserves decision,” so it is worth confirming the final status with the town.
At the hearing, representatives for the applicant said the change of tenant required no exterior or interior structural alterations. The same report says a building permit is still needed for interior alterations. Those two statements sit a little awkwardly together, which is one more reason to wait for the building permit before counting on a date.
A building with a long restaurant history
The space has turned over before. Hoodline says Red Robin opened its first Suffolk County restaurant there in July 2014. Wagyu Steakhouse followed in April 2023, and 88 Burger replaced it in 2024 before closing; the closing date is unclear.
The same shopping center also lost a planned tenant. Per Newsday, as relayed by Hoodline, Chick-fil-A canceled a 114-seat drive-thru in September 2026 after more than three years of approvals and extensions. Large restaurant footprints with parking are not easy to fill, and the road outside is busy: the broker RIPCO reports more than 23,000 vehicles a day on Montauk Highway.
The chain behind the move
IHOP is owned by Dine Brands Global, based in Pasadena, California, which also owns Applebee’s and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and counts more than 3,500 restaurants. IHOP has more than 1,700 locations, including 20 on Long Island, according to Newsday as cited by Hoodline. The West Babylon restaurant is franchisee-operated, and the report does not name the operator beyond the permit applicant, so this article does not either.
A company statement, issued through Business Wire and cited by Hoodline, said IHOP’s domestic same-restaurant sales rose 1.5% in the second quarter of 2026 from a year earlier, and that off-premise orders made up 20.2% of sales. A 1.5% gain is modest. And with about one dollar in five leaving the building as takeout or delivery, a larger dining room is a notable bet that guests still want to sit down. Those are company-reported figures, not independent ones.
Why a diner reader might care
West Babylon is on the South Shore, a drive from the North Shore towns this site usually covers, but it is the same Long Island dining market. The story is a small, concrete example of how restaurant real estate works. Seats are the product. More seats mean more tables turned at the Saturday-morning rush, and they also mean more servers, more cooks and a bigger lease to cover on a slow Tuesday.
Independent diners face the same arithmetic at a smaller scale. A counter and a dozen booths can only fill so many times in a morning, which is why timing, a short menu on the flat-top and a loyal weekday crowd matter so much. Chains can afford to relocate for a better building. Most single-location diners cannot, and they tend to invest in the room they already have.
What to watch next
- Whether the town issues the building permit for the interior work, and whether an opening date follows.
- What becomes of the existing building at 651 Montauk Highway. The reporting does not say.
- Whether the final seat count is 198 or 196, since the report gives both figures.
Nothing in the reporting says when the current restaurant will close, so anyone planning a visit should check with the restaurant directly. Everything above is attributed to the original reporting; Heritage Diner has not independently confirmed the permit status or the seat count.
Sources
- Hoodline, “IHOP Trades Its West Babylon Spot for a Bigger 198-Seat Pancake House Down the Road,” October 15, 2026 (opened and read): hoodline.com
- Material cited within that report and not separately opened: Newsday, RIPCO Real Estate, Town of Babylon planning records, and a Dine Brands company statement via Business Wire.
