Letter to the Cecil Whig - Chain Restaurants
05.OCT.2001
I must be one of the "out of step" people that Terry Peddicord mentioned in his latest commentary regarding the Applebee's liquor license delay. I have no desire to see Applebee's, Red Lobster, T.G.I. Friday's, Ruby Tuesday, or any other such restaurant move its way into Cecil County. I much prefer The Wellwood, Market Street Cafe, Woody's, The Howard House, Billie's Chuckwagon, The Rendezvous or Pier One, some of the many locally owned restaurants that both reflect and contribute to our county's character.
Each of these restaurants is unique, unlike the proposed Applebee's that would almost certainly be identical to the other 10 in Maryland. The profits that are earned by the local restaurant owners are kept in the area, while The Rose Group, the Applebee's franchise owner, is from out of state. The people who run Cecil County's restaurants are our friends and neighbors, but you will probably never meet the owner of Applebee's.
Placing a cookie-cutter chain restaurant in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart is hardly a step in the direction of becoming, as Mr. Peddicord puts it, "a progressive, modern metropolitan county". That is, of course, unless you consider Kirkwood Highway between Newark and Wilmington to be progressive, modern and metropolitan. That is beside the point, however, because I doubt most Cecil citizens are anxious to see their rural paradise turn into New Castle County.
Finally, if you want to create more restaurant jobs, spend your money at the interesting restaurants that we already have here. If you want to be progressive, invest in our town centers and Main Streets, rather than further congesting the highways. Being modern does not mean that we need to give up our local character and have restaurants and strip malls that repeat themselves in every town on the East Coast.