Outspoken Applebee's franchise owner Zane Tankel has sold most of his restaurant portfolio to a longtime rival in a $140 million deal.
Mr. Tunkel, 83, owned 23 Applebee's Grill & Bar restaurants in the New York City area, but last week sold 21 of them in a deal with New Jersey-based Dougherty Enterprises. agreed.
The company operates about 160 chain restaurants, including Applebee's, Panera Bread, and Chevys Fresh Mex.
“I'm not retiring,” Tankel told the Post on Monday. “I have a significant amount of cash and the ability to do other things.”
Mr. Tankel, who bought his first Applebee's 30 years ago, plans to keep his Times Square flagship restaurant on West 42nd Street and a restaurant in the Staten Island Mall to resolve a landlord dispute that arose during the pandemic.
Ed Doherty, 77, has known Tankel for 30 years and now manages outposts in Times Square and Staten Island through his family business.
Last year, Mr. Doherty approached an old friend about buying Tankel's Apple Metro business, which employs about 1,100 hourly employees and managers. Executives said the entire staff will remain with Dougherty.
“Zayn [and his business partner Roy Raeburn] They’ve done a great job,” Doherty, the company’s CEO and chairman, told the Post. “Zane and I have been friends since 1994, so it was natural for us to start talking.”
The acquisition makes Doherty Enterprises the fourth largest Applebee's franchisee with 104 stores. Located in the New York metropolitan area, Georgia, and Florida.
Apple Metro operated 35 restaurants at the beginning of the pandemic. The company closed many stores, but kept its best-performing Times Square eatery, despite a lawsuit with its landlord over unpaid rent.
The eatery has historically had sales of $25 million, Tankel previously told the Post.
Tankel has not shied away from criticizing corporate mothership Dine Brands over the years, including its ill-fated attempt to mass produce wood-fired steaks to boost sluggish sales in 2017.
Dine Brands leadership has mandated that franchisees add wood-burning grills to their kitchens to support new menu items such as hand-cut steaks, bone-in pork chops, and grilled salmon and chicken.
“It cost a lot of money and it wasn't the paradigm shift that was expected,” Tankel complained to the newspaper at the time.
