Sure, Applebee's sometimes gives babies margaritas instead of apple juice, and their Times Square location seems modeled after the fourth circle of Dante's Inferno, but drunk hell babies seem to be a winning formula: the joint rakes in $13 million a year!
The Times has a chat today with Zane Tankel, the Applebee's franchisee who owns 34 restaurants around the city. The Times Square location pulls in $13.5 million a year, making it the highest grossing location of any Applebee's in the world. That's a whole lot of riblets! And it's no surprise it's a lucrative operation, considering all the tourists in Times Square curious to try all the exotic cuisine NYC has to offer.
Other gems of wisdom from Tankel: Staten Island loves it some karaoke, it's impossible to teach people how to be nice, and if you manage an Applebee's for 18 months you'll get a new car (!). The only question: when will Applebee's come to Bushwick already? Ironic eating never gets old.
