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So 1 of my family members thinks there is a strong chance Outback Steakhouse made a mistake closing in Sheffield, AL to open in Florence, AL. Outback Steakhouse did have strong clientele where their previous location in Sheffield, AL was, almost always the restaurant was at least one third full (even at off peak times) and full on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights with a wait time. Today I passed by the new Outback Steakhouse and saw just as many if not slightly more cars at Logan's Roadhouse 3 doors down. Before they moved a server at Outback Steakhouse told me they were hoping to pick up some customers from Logan's Roadhouse and Longhorn Steakhouse, I think they may pick up a few from Longhorn Steakhouse (where I quit going after they took 2 of my favorite items off of the menu) but Logan's Roadhouse has regular customers because they have good food (with the exception of maybe a couple "don't order" items), made in house yeast rolls which are really good, and they are cheaper than Outback Steakhouse! Does anyone think it's a bad sign Outback Steakhouse didn't have more cars than Logan's Roadhouse?

This was at 4:10 PM 12/21/2019.

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unclegus posted:

I quit Logans a year or two ago so no Outback will be my choice.

Logan's has brought back several discontinued menu items, such as the House Made Potato Chips, Onion Petals, and Personal Sized Desserts. That said those items leaving may not have been why you quit going to Logan's. But in my opinion Logan's has tried to get better, and it is working.

I have a question for you, with Outback now on the Florence side of river are you more or less likely to choose Outback over another restaurant?

From the looks of the parking lots up and down Cox Creek Blvd., there's enough overflow business for Outback.  And from the looks of the parking lot at the new Outback, their future looks very good in Florence.

Florence is an excellent chain restaurant city, with just about every restaurant in the city in the upper 10% of their restaurants' sales performance.  

I've never understood why Logans has done such a great business, but they live on repeat customers.  The Longhorn has never done the volume I've expected, and Applebees is sub-par in food quality, restaurant facilities and quality of employees for their chain.  Chili's also needs great improvements.  Texas Roadhouse also kicks *** in every way, but the place is so loud inside.  I just hope moving Lil Capones so close to the new Outback will payoff for them, but the jury's out.

The reason I left Logan's is very trivial and simple. after numerous requests for cinnamon only without the brown sugar to go with my baked sweet potato with no avail. I have been mocked by servers, talked  to a couple managers who did n't seem to care, one telling me that if the kitchen manager decided to they could by some locally(but never did according to my knowledge) Even go as far as contacting the Logan's website and never getting so much as a response from them, I have decided to just quit them.

 I know they have not felt my absence but they once was one of my favorite places to eat. 

Jack Hammer posted:
JH1961 posted:

If Florence is so good for chain restaurants, why did we lose IHOP?

The only good IHOP is the one just opened, after a couple of months they
all are filthy and couldn't care less about service. 
But that might just be those over here in Paradise.

All I remember about IHOP is the coffee being as weak as water and only lukewarm. We haven't been back in years.

From what I've understood from talking to some of the managers and employees at the new Florence location they are experiencing more business at Florence than they had at Sheffield and the new restaurant can actually set more patrons than the Sheffield location.  Many that I see there are walking across to the parking that is between the Wells Fargo Bank and the new Outback location.  I think time will be the deciding factor of whether or not the move will be profitable for them.  

Regarding IHOP, which is owned by Applebees (which may explain their choice of location) the real killer of the Florence IHOP was their management or lack of it.  I can remember after it opened they never really settled in and wait times to be seated and actually served was outrageous and far exceeded what you would find at Cracker Barrel and definitely way more than Waffle House.

Many people believe that Outback should have left the Sheffield location open as well and maintained two locations but I personally like the new location but I do admit that parking is, at times, tough to find.

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