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What Happened To Applebee's?

Operator ZoneRestaurant Failures & Lessons/CNBC/11:07

You can trace Applebee's decline through the numbers every operator knows by heart: food cost creep, labor bloat, the slow death of regulars who stop coming back. They tried to microwave their way out of trouble while independent spots with actual cooks were eating their lunch, one properly seared steak at a time. The lesson isn't complicated — when you stop respecting the fundamentals, the fundamentals stop respecting you.

— The Chef's Take

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