Denny's Opens First Restaurant in Central America

The first Denny's Restaurant in Costa Rica has opened, marking the entrance of the nation's largest family restaurant chain into Central America. The new Denny's, located in the capital city of San Jose, is owned and operated by Denny's franchisee Agustin Monge, president of Hotelera Santa Marta. In addition, Monge has signed a seven-year development agreement with Denny's Inc. to build additional restaurants in Costa Rica.

Denny's of Costa Rica is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The restaurant serves Denny's popular menu items, including a variety of hamburgers, sandwiches, chicken, steak and seafood entrees as well as desserts. Menus will be available in English and Spanish.

The new Denny's is 6,400 square feet with seating for 150 guests, and features a traditional design theme with green and brick color scheme and mahogany accents. The restaurant is situated on a site adjacent to the 325-room Best Western Irazu, which is also owned by Monge.

Hotelera Santa Marta, a franchisee of Best Western and Hampton Inn, currently operates five hotels and two restaurants in Costa Rica. Eduardo Castro, director of operations for Best Western Irazu, oversees the Denny's operations and Jose Rojas is general manager of the new restaurant.

Denny's is the nation's largest full-service family restaurant chain with more than 1,700 company-owned and franchised restaurants in the United States and abroad. Denny's has 46 company and Franchise restaurants in Canada. The company also licenses 21 Denny's internationally in Guam, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Singapore. Based in Spartanburg, S.C., Denny's is a subsidiary of Advantica Restaurant Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: DINE), one of the largest restaurant companies in the United States.