Applebee's is America's largest casual-dining chain, with sales that exceed those of its closest competitor (Chili's) by more than $1 billion. Brendan Koerner wrote in Slate that Applebee's success can be attributed to a combination of an innovative franchise model ("[Applebee's] saw no reason that independent operators couldn't run tight ships... [O]perating a casual-dining restaurant is tough work, but it's not exactly the Manhattan Project") and heavy saucing ("Applebee's trademark Riblets, for example, are bathed in enough tangy BBQ sauce to make a diner forget that he's chowing on extraneous pig parts").
However, a new Applebee's practice has come to light that may more effectively explain why it blows the competition out of the water: It gets kids wasted. No, not teenagers with fake ID's. Kids.
Cynthia Pereles said she took her [five-year-old] son Seth to dinner at the franchised restaurant in Battery Park City and ordered him an apple juice.
Pereles said she did not realize her son was drinking a concoction of white rum, gin, vodka, triple sec, Coke and sweet-and-sour mix until it was too late. The boy's eyes became glazed and he began to laugh uncontrollably, according to a report.
Yes, this may be just a simple mistake, as Applebee's argues. But it's also possible that little Seth was driven to drink after Elmo forced him to examine his own mortality.
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