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Denny's (also known as Denny's Diner on some of the locations' signage) is a table service diner-style restaurant chain. There is also a fast-casual restaurant concept created by Denny's Inc. called "The Den." It operates There are over 1,600 Denny's-brand restaurants in the United States (including Puerto Rico and Guam), Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Curaçao, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan (transliterated as デニーズ Denīzu), New Zealand, Qatar, Philippines and United Arab Emirates. Denny's is known for always being open, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner around the clock. Denny's does not close on holidays and nights, except where required by law. Many of the restaurants are located in proximity to freeway exits, bars, and in service areas. Denny's started franchising in 1963, and most Denny's restaurants are now franchisee-owned.

Restaurants
'''Typically, Denny’s restaurants do approximately equal portions of their sales for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night. A majority of sales are usually for breakfast items, even during lunch and dinner times. Denny’s is known for the “Grand Slam,” which is a breakfast meal that includes two pancakes, two eggs, two sausages, and two strips of bacon. In the 2000s, Denny’s began expanding its menu to include burgers, fish, and other dinner items. About 20% of orders are from its $2, $4, $6, $8 menu.  In 2015, Denny’s made a spin-off fast-casual brand called “The Den” that is predominantly located on college campuses and intended for young millennials. The Den locations sell burgers, wraps, and burritos, in addition to the Grand Slam and other breakfast items. The Den is a “scaled down” version of Denny’s with a smaller menu. '''

Discrimination
Denny's has been involved in a series of discrimination lawsuits involving food servers denying or providing inferior service to racial minorities, especially black customers. In 1994, Denny's settled a class action lawsuit filed by black customers who had been refused service, forced to wait longer, or pay more than white customers. The $54.4 million settlement was the largest to date under federal public-accommodations laws established thirty years earlier.

In 1995, a black Denny's customer in Sacramento, California was told that he and his friends had to pay up front at the counter upon ordering their meals. He questioned the waitress: "We asked the waitress about it and she said some black guys had been in earlier who made a scene and walked out without paying their bill. So the manager now wanted all blacks to pay up front." '''This citation does have a good summary of the racism problems we had at certain restaurants in the 1990s and the resulting litigation leading up to the 1994 settlement, but the citation does not appear to include any of the content it is cited for. This anecdote also seems unnecessary; it constitutes the third time so far that the racist practices we were sued for are described.''' A 1993 incident occurred when six black United States Secret Service agents visited a Denny’s restaurant in Annapolis, Maryland. They were forced to wait an hour for service while their white companions were seated immediately. <-- can Wikipedia include that Denny's terminated the manager and made a statement against this kind of behavior like The New York Times did? In San Jose, California, in 1994, several black teenagers were refused service unless they agreed to pay in advance. In 1997, six Asian-American students from Syracuse University visited a local Denny’s restaurant late at night. They waited for more than half an hour as white patrons were regularly served, seated, and offered more helpings. They complained to management and to their server but were forced to leave the establishment by two security guards called by Denny’s management. Then, according to the students, a group of white men came out of Denny's, attacked them and shouted racial epithets. Several of the students were beaten into unconsciousness. After the $54.4 million settlement, Denny's created a racial sensitivity training program for all employees. Denny's has also made efforts at improving its public relations image by featuring African-Americans in their commercials, including one featuring Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford, actors from the popular The Jeffersons television series. In 2001, Denny's was chosen by Fortune magazine as the "Best Company for Minorities." In 2006 and 2007, Denny's topped Black Enterprise's "Best 40 Companies for Diversity." In 2014, a Denny's location in Deming, New Mexico became subjected to a discrimination claim by an LGBT group, alleging that wait staff used homophobic slurs and refused to serve a group of gay, lesbian, and transgender customers who were attending a gay pride celebration. One year later, Denny's agreed to donate $13,000 to Deming Pride, pay $3,250 to a female customer who was subjected to the abusive behavior by wait staff, as well as retrain employees regarding discrimination policies. '''This claim involves a single location (out of 1,700) that was owned and operated by franchisee Jim Mathieu (see here). It was the franchise owner, not Denny's Inc., that was sued and reached a settlement. While it was a very dramatic series of events for the parties involved, to the best of my knowledge it was only covered by local news and did not have a significant impact on the Denny's brand or business. This is not a significant part of our history like the class action lawsuit is. You can see the franchisee's version of events here if you're interested.''' In 2017, staff at a Denny's in Vancouver were accused of making an Indigenous woman pay for her meal before it was served. After the customer left, restaurant staff called police to report the incident, alleging that the patron had a sharp-metal object in their pocket. Denny's Canada responded stating that the company was conducting an internal review regarding the incident. This is also a situation involving an isolated occurrence at a single franchise restaurant covered by local news.

Sudden closures
In June 2017, eight Denny's locations in Colorado, including Colorado Springs and Pueblo, abruptly shut down due to a franchise owner failing to pay nearly $200,000 in back taxes as well as over $30,000 in sales tax from the previous year. In addition, several employees claimed there were issues with accounts not being paid, bounced checks and paychecks not arriving on time. As a result of the seizure of the eight Denny's locations by the IRS, numerous employees were left without employment, and claimed that no advanced warning was given regarding the sudden closures. The franchise owner responsible for the closures immediately fled the state of Colorado. '''This is an incident involving a hand-full of locations and a local franchisee, not Denny's Inc. To the best of my knowledge, it was only covered by local news. It seems odd for Wikipedia to cover every local incident involving a franchisee on a national page about Denny's. '''