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I have a strange relationship with the restaurant chain, Applebee's.
Back in the mid-Nineties, my former speaking partner and I visited the University of Wyoming. The students who hosted us to campus were incredibly friendly and hospitable. They always seem to be appreciative of speakers who make the trip up to Laramie to see them. After the program, they told me and Joel that they wanted to take us out to dinner to a local neighborhood grill that had just opened not far from campus.
"We know you like to eat in places that reflect the local flavor," one student told us. "You'll love this place. There's lots of University of Wyoming stuff on the walls and the food is really great." Sure enough, it was an Applebee's. The students had no idea it was a chain and that Joel and I had probably eaten at two others that week in other states. We didn't have the heart to tell them.
Monday I was in Maryville, Missouri, visiting Northwest Missouri State University. In addition to being the home of the Bearcats, it's also the home of the most crowded, rockin' Applebee's I've ever seen. Maryville doesn't have a ton of sit-down restaurants, and the students and the locals LOVE LOVE LOVE their Applebee's. It's seriously the place to see and be seen. Over several visits to Maryville, I've seen a line out the door at 4 pm and at midnight. Whoever owns that place is making a fortune.
I visited another Applebee's at another school last year where the Black Greek organizations had their own designated section. I guess it was their hangout.
I have a story in my program about a weird encounter with a sorority pledge class in a North Carolina Applebee's. I should get free dinner coupons from the chain for the amount of publicity I've given them on college campuses. I have an Applebee's in the parking lot of the office building where CAMPUSPEAK is based. On the flight home today, I started watching the first season of Friday Night Lights (which is awesome, by the way) and several scenes are set in an Applebee's there in fictional Dillon, Texas.
No real point to this post except to give a shout out to Applebee's. There's a certain amount of comfort that comes from being able to eat the same Oriental Chicken Salad in any corner of America. But, if an executive from Chili's is reading, send me a gift card. I think I'm ready to branch out.
