@tinytim : So what "restaurant", not open 24 hours, or closes the kitchen before the doors are locked, or stays open until TABC mandates you can no longer sell alcohol, and has a marketing campaign of "Club Applebee's - Open until 2AM every night"?At bare minimum, this was a national "bar". Where people knew what to expect, standard pricing etc.

@CelticStorm : I want to understand this correctly you are telling me that Applebee's primary marketing and brand image is to be a bar? So much for their iconic "Eatin good in the neighborhood" slogan or spending all that money on advertising riblets instead of drinks. They are seriously confused.Talk about bad branding.

@CelticStorm : I prefer Applebee's to Chili's any day of the week

This is great news. I like Applebee's food, but I very rarely go there because of the cigarette smell. I DoorDash from them a lot. I'll wait a month for the smoke to clear (and the awful smell to vanish) and give them another shot.

We all know I use to smoke & did so more than 40 yrs . Actually more than 53 . At any rate I think cigarettes stink big time & for years now they make my throat raw caughing being around them .((( But ))) I have always felt smokers are discriminated against .If your going to open a restaurant & not have an area for the smokers then shame on you . And please remember it's taking away a smokers right to smoke in your restaurant . So How about guns ???? If I owned a restaurant I'd let them smoke but I don't want them to carry a gun into my restaurant period ! And the restaurant down the street they do not want any woman breast feeding . Another one doesn't want any motor cycle riders because they may be involved in gang activity . To have an area that is separate & has a fan that sucks the smoke out of that area & has a separate AC & heating unit to me should be supplied for the smokers . They should not be forced outside in 100 degrees of heat or 29 degree weather to be able to light up their cigarette . I have been one of those people standing outside to smoke & I felt I was being discriminated against .We all know smoking is not a healthy thing to do . But drinking isn't either . And today the restaurants many times give us way to much food on our plates that many people eat just because it's there & not because their still hungry . So some of these places give extra to keep you coming back there . Some places give huge amounts of french fries . Have you ever noticed that ? I notice it often with fried shrimp . They give you 5 or 6 ounces of shrimp & it looks like 2 or 3 lbs of french fries .

'Taters are a cheap plate filler.Total waste of time, energy and potatoes. I'd be happy with about 10 fries.

Maybe COH is stepping in more? KFC was closed because COH bought it out (for the widening fixing 1960 and WLHP mess to soon begin) Remember COH owns a lot of the businesses along 1960 due to being so close to Lake Houston.

smoking should be outlawed unless the smokers sign a waiver to forfeit any health insurance or medical care.
We are not in the dark ages. It increases the double helix strand breaks in your DNA exponentially and over taxes your sirtuins increasing your amount of senescent cells which are what almost all precancerous cells are formed from. You also hand that risk off to all the people around you.At least one cigarette isn't as bad as an order of vegetable oil fried french fries, one order of french fries causes as much damage to your mitochondria as 78 cigarettesMaybe we should start regulating vegetable oil fried foods also?

@tinytim : As it should be! A choice, not the law!

I don't mind smokers, I mind breathing second hand smoke.
I don't mind drinkers, I mind getting hit by a drunk driver.
I don't mind much anybody does, I only mind if it impacts me.

By some of y'all's logic, every bar should be shut down, no alcohol served in any restaurant, because we all know people are under the influence.Fat chance of that happening. Less government, more personal responsibility. And if you start cutting off medical support, that is a slippery slope you probably don't want to go down!

@Sammee : I agree 10 fries would be plenty & I leave a bunch on my plate .

@CelticStorm : That should set up tables out back or side by bar 1 beer and smokes

Don't most of the local (non national chains) bars in Atascocita allow smoking, I think they all do except Time Out Tavern. Matter of fact if you cross the street into the 24 hour fitness parking lot there is On the Rox. Plenty of places in Atascocita for those that want to smoke and have a drink.

I always thought having a smoking section in a restaurant was like having a peeing section in the pool. It all circulates everywhere regardless of where you are.