Toddle House was a national restaurant chain in the United States specializing in breakfast and open 24/7. Each tiny outlet was built to the same plan, and contained no tables, but merely a short counter with a row of ten stools. Payment was on the honor system: customers deposited their checks with the correct amount in a box by the door on the way out. Much of their business was take out.

The business, based in Memphis, Tennessee, was founded in 1932 by James Frederick Smith -- who (before age 20) had dropped his first name, expressing a strong preference to be known as Fred or Frederick -- and who was the father of Frederick Wallace Smith, the founder of Federal Express (FedEx).

[Fred Smith the father had previously (in 1925) founded the Smith Motor Coach Company, in which in 1931 The Greyhound Corporation bought a controlling interest, and which Greyhound renamed as the Dixie Greyhound Lines.]

Joe Rogers, Sr., a regional manager of the Toddle House chain, left Toddle House to found the similar Waffle House.

During the segregation era, the company also operated a parallel chain of similar restaurants for African-Americans called "Harlem House". In 1962, Toddle House was purchased by Dobbs Houses, a competitor which owned Steak 'n Egg Kitchen,^[1] and the franchise was allowed to decline.^[2] In 1980, Carson Pirie Scott borrowed $108 million to buy Dobbs Houses. In January 1988, Carson Pirie Scott sold Steak 'n Egg Kitchen and Toddle House to Diversified Hospitality Group of Milford, Connecticut.^{[3] [4]} The chain has since been liquidated.

Bob Greene wrote about eating chocolate pie with his friends at an Ohio Toddle House in his book And You Know You Should Be Glad: A True Story of Lifelong Friendship (William Morrow, 2006).

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