Applebee's seems like the most basic of basic chain restaurants.
The kind of place where Mom, Dad, and their two-point-five children would go for a "kids
eat free" meal deal, while across the restaurant in the bar, the gals from HR whoop it up on
a ladies' night out with $1 margaritas.
But it's not all suburban fun.
Here's some of the biggest stains on Applebee's reputation.
Applebee's can be a pretty tough place to work.
As of July 2019, it only rates 3.2 on Glassdoor, with reviews citing long hours, late nights,
rude customers, and understaffing.
Some employees also said they weren't fully paid.
A 2016 class action lawsuit filed on behalf of employees at 23 Applebee's restaurants
in West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky claimed that they were being stiffed on their wages.
These employees, all of whom were considered to be servers and bartenders, and thus paid
only the $4.25 per hour tipped staff get, were nonetheless required by their managers
to perform labor such as washing dishes or cleaning the parking lot.
"The company has been accused of requiring tipped employees to perform duties that are
non-tipped duties without receiving proper compensation."
U.S. federal law doesn't permit restaurants to pay less than minimum wage if employees
are performing non-tipped work.
There's no word yet on the outcome of the suit.
As Applebee's struggled through the summer of 2017, some Texas locations hit upon a brilliant
promotion: sell margaritas for just a dollar.
The locations involved sold more margaritas in July of that year than ever before.
By October, the newly-christened "Dollaritas" had rolled out nationwide.
But shortly after Dollaritas themselves went viral, so did a Facebook video by an Applebee's
bartender sharing the secret Dollarita recipe: one gallon of bottom-shelf tequila, one gallon
of margarita mix, and three gallons of water, making the drink only one-fifth booze, and
that's without ice.
Applebee's issued denials and cast doubt on whether the anonymous video poster was even
an employee, but the commenters had already passed judgment.
Even so, a dollar drink is still a dollar drink, and they kept on selling just fine.
Author Tracie McMillan, while researching her 2012 book The American Way of Eating:
Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table, spent a year working
at poorly-paid, entry level jobs in the food industry, including a stint as an Applebee's prep cook.
While there, she unearthed some information that will come as a shock to practically nobody:
Hardly anything served at Applebee's is fresh.
Almost everything that comes out of an Applebee's kitchen is prepackaged, frozen, or dehydrated,
and yes, most of the so-called cooking takes place in a microwave.
"That's Chef Mike."
"Chef who?"
"Chef Mike.
It's a microwave."
McMillan did reveal one little-known fact: In many cases, the plastic dishes in which
the Applebee's food is microwaved melt slightly, leaving remnants that stick to the food and
must be wiped off.
But it seems some of that melted plastic taste still lingers on the palate.
Eatin' good!
At least seven people who dined at a Minneapolis-area Applebee's in the summer of 2014 came down
with food poisoning caused by a rare strain of E. coli that had never been seen previously
in the United States.
Four of them had to be hospitalized.
Investigations pointed to the unfortunately named Oriental Chicken Salad, so Applebee's
temporarily removed it from the menu statewide.
The chain also reportedly "changed suppliers," but offered little information about those
suppliers or what they supplied.
Still, shockingly, as of 2019, the salad is still on the menu, un-PC name and all.
A family with kids ages 9, 10, and 11 visited a Johnson City, Tennessee, Applebee's for
dinner, and when the server asked what the kids wanted to drink, they asked for root beer.
She went off to fetch them three bottles of what she thought was soda.
Eagle-eyed Dad, however, noticed that it was Not Your Father's Root Beer, which is 5.9 percent alcohol.
He argued with the server, then called the police as well as Applebee's corporate.
"I immediately told my kids to stop drinking that alcoholic beverage, and I brought it
to her attention, and she said, 'No, no.
It's root beer.'"
The 9-year-old was checked out at a hospital, but was released and expected to be fine.
The server involved was suspended from her position, and management apologized profusely,
promising to retrain all of the restaurant staff in beverage management.
The family likely got their meals for free, although the kids never got any real root beer.
That Applebee's didn't actually have any available.
In February 2018, two women had their dinner at the Independence Center Applebee's in Missouri
interrupted by visits from a police officer, a mall security guard, and the manager.
They were accused of having "dined and dashed" the day before.
They were told to pay up, get out, and stay out.
One of the women recorded a video on her phone while the incident was playing out, and later
posted it to Facebook, noting that she believed it happened because they were black.
Not surprisingly, the video went viral, causing Applebee's to issue a public apology as well
as firing the manager and the two employees who had been involved in profiling the diners.
Applebee's was so rocked by the accusations that they ended up permanently closing the
Independence restaurant rather than temporarily, as originally planned.
In 2013, a pastor at a St. Louis Applebee's objected to the automatic 18 percent tip added
because she had more than eight people in her party.
In defiance of the standard gratuity policy, the pastor crossed out the included tip and
left a note saying,
"I give God 10 percent, why do you get 18?"
Another waitress took av picture of the receipt and uploaded it to Reddit.
The image instantly went viral.
Applebee's response was a disaster.
They fired the waitress who posted the photo claiming that posting this receipt was a violation
of customer privacy.
But the company had itself posted the back of a receipt revealing a customer's full name
just a month earlier.
Internet commenters grew vocal, demanding Applebee's rehire the waitress.
Talk of boycotts began, and Applebee's responded by picking fights with Facebook followers,
spamming, deleting comments, and then claiming not to have deleted those comments.
The former waitress, Chelsea Welch, went on to become a commentator and spokesperson for
food servers' rights.
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