NO MORE F A T Z
- Thread starter Permacock70
- Start date
Maybe they would have continued to thrive had they not been sold several years ago to the group that owns Applebee's (which explains a lot). The menu changes were disastrous. New management ruined a perfectly good place to eat.
Applebee’s…for those nights when you’re too tired to microwave your own supper
Fatz kind of just faded away. There was one off Broad River that I went to several times. It closed down years ago I believe the buildings been vacant ever since. I’m not sure if the one off Forest Dr. is still there.
I don’t remember caring much for anything on their menu. But the complimentary rolls and honey butter dip were spot on.
I don’t remember caring much for anything on their menu. But the complimentary rolls and honey butter dip were spot on.
Only restaurant in Lancaster I ever walked out of without ordering, and it was probably a blessing.
I enjoyed the ribeye sandwiches a great deal. They served them like a regular entree, with salad and a side. Then of course, there were the rolls. The calabash chicken was good also.
But they had slipped, and badly. When I went in the one in Rock Hill for lunch several weeks ago and there was almost no one there to eat, I knew that the end was approaching. That place used to be well patronized all the time.
Funny how places like Applebees, Chili’s and TGI Fridays were so popular at one point. Maybe they still are with young folk. But the older you get, you start to ask questions. Like “How is Applebee’s making fresh ribs when it’s one of 100 things on the menu and the cook is a 20 year old part-time worker who probably moonlights at a tattoo parlor?”
It’s odd to me how companies are just willing to let a brand die or shut down a location instead of just making it better. One chain I used to like was Ruby Tuesday. They did, and still do, have a great salad bar, though the rest of the menu is blah. We had one in our town that started to slip. Not kept clean. Food quality was dipping. They just shut it down when all it would take is a little elbow grease and some quality oversight to make things right.
My mom and dad went to school with the original owner who started FATZ...he was from Inman SC. He sold out years and years ago. He signed a non-compete agreement. Later on, he opened Copper River Grill in the upstate. Johnny Rogers was his name if I'm not mistaken. He is dead now...
They closed all the ones here in the TriCities. Damn, I liked to go to the one in Elizabethton. I've eaten at a lot of the locations in TN, NC & SC. So many of those types of restaurants are closing. Friday's is still in Biltmore Village in Asheville.
If I'm a guessing person, food trucks are now the thing. Breweries are popping up all over the place with light menus so who is going to Bar-Grills anymore? Some independents are doing OK.
If coming to Johnson City, eat at Cootie Browns, Label, Freiberg's (German, owner was from former East Germany), The Firehouse, Cafe Lola's, Timber, kickback Jacks...these are not chains. Course we have the typical chain restaurants too...Chili's, Longhorns, Red Lobster, Texas Roadhouse, Aubrey's (TN chain out of Knoxville), etc.
Some of the small diners are now going by the wayside. Clarence's Diner in Erwin, right off I26 that offered biscuits and gravy all day just closed.
I'm really missing places like Picadilly, S&S Cafeteria, Morrison's.
One of my favorite places to get country cooking is Wade's in Spartanburg. When I'm in the upstate, I make it a point to go to Wade's. Sometimes, the Beacon but I think Wade's beats the Beacon hands down.
They closed all the ones here in the TriCities. Damn, I liked to go to the one in Elizabethton. I've eaten at a lot of the locations in TN, NC & SC. So many of those types of restaurants are closing. Friday's is still in Biltmore Village in Asheville.
If I'm a guessing person, food trucks are now the thing. Breweries are popping up all over the place with light menus so who is going to Bar-Grills anymore? Some independents are doing OK.
If coming to Johnson City, eat at Cootie Browns, Label, Freiberg's (German, owner was from former East Germany), The Firehouse, Cafe Lola's, Timber, kickback Jacks...these are not chains. Course we have the typical chain restaurants too...Chili's, Longhorns, Red Lobster, Texas Roadhouse, Aubrey's (TN chain out of Knoxville), etc.
Some of the small diners are now going by the wayside. Clarence's Diner in Erwin, right off I26 that offered biscuits and gravy all day just closed.
I'm really missing places like Picadilly, S&S Cafeteria, Morrison's.
One of my favorite places to get country cooking is Wade's in Spartanburg. When I'm in the upstate, I make it a point to go to Wade's. Sometimes, the Beacon but I think Wade's beats the Beacon hands down.
Salad Bar was the only reason to go to Ruby Tuesday but the same happened in my town - cleanliness was a major issue so we just quit going.
Ridgewood Barbecue in Elizabethton is the bomb. Off the beaten path but worth the trip.
So many bad outcomes result from ownership by conglomerates that want restaurants as assets without respect to what makes them work. Eventually, the restaurants themselves deteriorate because the local managers that made the places good investments cycle out. I think of Tomato Rumba, Hop's, Rafferty's , Grady's, so many more. Good, reliable places that were here year after year and then suddenly gone.
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I ate at the one in Conway twice back in the day, read on here clemrons started it, and never ate at one again. I spent zero time vetting the claim.
I don't mind a little grunge as long as the food isn't rancid and I don't get sick, such as with that country diner in Camden where several people got sick and one man died several years ago. They were doing a bang-up business, but it all evaporated overnight.
We’re going to see A LOT more of this. Consolidation and the current labor environment is destroying everything we once knew as normal.
My wife and I own service business. In 2020 we had 9 locations. Tomorrow we closing our 4th location in 3 years. As a small business we have to personally guarantee our leases. The lease we were confronted with renewing was 32% more expensive than 2020 and we simply had no faith we could find reliable enough labor to take that risk. Which is hysterical because our pay scale has increased 28% in 3 years.
A tsunami of small business owners deciding that quitting is a more prudent option than taking risk is coming. Normally in history that would lead to even more consolidation, but with interest rates at 20 year highs…I’m expecting there to just be less available options.
A Cracker Barrel near us opened up and closed in less than two years citing labor issues. They walked away from $3 million in construction costs in 20 months. Strange times we are living in.
My wife and I own service business. In 2020 we had 9 locations. Tomorrow we closing our 4th location in 3 years. As a small business we have to personally guarantee our leases. The lease we were confronted with renewing was 32% more expensive than 2020 and we simply had no faith we could find reliable enough labor to take that risk. Which is hysterical because our pay scale has increased 28% in 3 years.
A tsunami of small business owners deciding that quitting is a more prudent option than taking risk is coming. Normally in history that would lead to even more consolidation, but with interest rates at 20 year highs…I’m expecting there to just be less available options.
A Cracker Barrel near us opened up and closed in less than two years citing labor issues. They walked away from $3 million in construction costs in 20 months. Strange times we are living in.
We have a Longhorns in Mt. Pleasant. My wife and I would eat there often because they have a great ribeye. We had been dining there for over 15 years. All of the sudden, the service went to hell in a handbasket. We no longer eat there. None of our frends do either.
Are you referring to the Mt. Pleasant Cracker Barrel? That one, smack dab in the middle of town. Couldn't make it. Their service sucked.
We use to eat out a ton but found during Covid that the food cooked at home was not only better but a heck of a lot cheaper.
Many a time consumer tastes just change. As another poster pointed out, Applebes, Chillis, etc they no longer frequent.
We used to go to Chills every weekend when we first got married, now unless we're going for the 3 for me deal, we don't go.
More disposable income, changing taste, looking past the standard, burger, texmex, assembly line meals, are reasons we moved on. Now we prefer local/family owned restaurants. Unless traveling we don't bother with the chains any longer.
We used to go to Chills every weekend when we first got married, now unless we're going for the 3 for me deal, we don't go.
More disposable income, changing taste, looking past the standard, burger, texmex, assembly line meals, are reasons we moved on. Now we prefer local/family owned restaurants. Unless traveling we don't bother with the chains any longer.
Yep. They completely ruined it. Sad. Last time I went there it was stupid expensive and it seemed like they were trying to serve everything out of a mason jar. Very strange. The food sucked too. Thought maybe it's just an off night or something, then found out they had been bought out by a big group. Never went back.
As long as there are old people going to church on Sundays, Wades will be there!
True. I used to crush that Bourbon Street steak at Applebees b/c it was the only steak I could afford.
I didn't know they had been bought until after my most recent visit to the Rock Hill location. In retrospect, had I possessed prior knowledge, it would have explained a lot.
The lockdowns really killed small businesses - retail and restaurants. Of course the huge corporations were allowed to stay open while mom-and-pop's were forced to shut down with threat of arrest, funny how that works.
working at a Applebees ???
Of course not!!! Running a local decades old, solid eatery into the ground! Perhaps their cash to cash conversion cycle was bad to they took action. lolOne of the worst CEOs I ever worked for used to brag about being "Harvard educated". We later found out he took an online Harvard business class in which he received a certification.
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So not exactly a "Harvard Man".
One of the worst CEOs I ever worked for used to brag about being "Harvard educated". We later found out he took an online Harvard business class in which he received a certification.
They were started primarily as bars that women felt comfortable going to….and became sort of a singles club. That is why they were designed interior lot the way they were….to cause maximum contact because of the bar sticking so far out. Before bars were simply along side on wall.
Yeah or somewhere close to that....near the intersection of Pelham Rd and 14. Used to love going there.