Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill came to Gig Harbor this week, officially opening Monday one of the smallest of the chain restaurant’s locations but one of the largest employers in town.

The restaurant on Point Fosdick Drive NW, across from the Safeway development, has hired 105 employees, general manager Mark Taylor said. It makes Applebee’s one of the largest companies, and the largest restaurant, in Gig Harbor, according to data from Source Reference USA.

Taylor said more than 1,000 people applied to work at the restaurant, which started its hiring process Feb. 1 from a trailer set up in an adjacent parking lot.

The restaurant broke ground last fall but wasn’t finished until just a few weeks ago.

“We have staff from all walks of life,” Taylor said last Friday during the restaurant’s “soft open,” a chance for employees to practice serving friends, family and other invited guests for free.

The restaurant was bustling as dozens of diners were greeted and served by the large staff.
The restaurant is owned by Apple American Group, the country’s largest Applebee’s franchisee that owns and operates 439 Applebee’s restaurants nationwide. The Gig Harbor location is the company’s 41st in Washington state.

Taylor, an operations manager with Apple American who spent the past seven years at the Lakewood location, said his company had been eager to open a restaurant on the west side of the Narrows but closer than the one in Silverdale.

“We’ve been looking for a spot in Gig Harbor for years,” Taylor said, adding that the company initially wanted to build near the Costco development in Gig Harbor North. “We felt our brand and our concept would be really well-received here.”

The Point Fosdick location opened up, and Taylor said Apple American leapt at the chance to build near the growing Uptown Gig Harbor Shopping Center and Point Fosdick Square developments.

Several other new stores, including a Kohl’s and the restaurant Lunchbox Laboratory, are scheduled to open nearby in the coming months.

“You’ve got theaters, a residential area and other restaurants,” Taylor said of the surrounding neighborhood. “We’re very excited to be around all that.”

The development’s recent growth meant the restaurant would be built on a new business parcel, a smaller piece of land than Applebee’s is used to. The Gig Harbor restaurant, with a capacity of 179 people, is one of the smallest in the company.

“This was the footprint we were given,” Taylor said. “We had to start from scratch.”

But he’s certain the new restaurant will follow the brand philosophy of its company, the world’s largest casual-dining restaurant chain. The Applebee’s slogan, “See You Tomorrow,” summarized the company’s outlook, Taylor said.

“We want it to be upbeat and fun,” he said. “We’re going to look to make a connection to people in the community. We want to be their friends.”

The restaurant’s new staff members, who have only had a little more than a week to get to know each other and their management team, will be a big part of that effort, bartender Steven Wilson said.

Wilson, a Spanaway resident with years of experience in the food service industry, said he’s been impressed with his coworkers during their weeklong, and often intense, training period before the restaurant opened its doors.

“They did a really good job getting a staff together that complements each other and takes into consideration how to make our guests happy,” he said. “That’s exactly what I love.”

Wilson’s fellow bartender, Regina Behmer of Port Orchard, concurred. The two worked the bar Friday in preparation for the restaurant’s opening.

“When you first start any job, you’re always nervous,” Behmer said. “But it’s been a lot of fun so far.”