The line ran out the door around the store and down the parking lot as hungry customers waited for their free “Grand Slam” breakfast at the Douglas Denny’s Restaurant, located on Fifth Street.
 Denny’s owner Eddie Rivera serves pancakes to a waiting customer. |
The cost of the food served was $4,125, estimated store owner Eddie Rivera.
“We wanted to show our concern to customers about the declining economy. Everyone’s budget is being stressed. We wanted to provide them a little boost at least for that morning.”
The Denny’s was fully staffed that morning with four cooks, five managers and seven servers to keep up with the demand for the breakfast, which includes two pancakes, two eggs, two sausage and two strips of bacon.
‘It was amazing,” Rivera said. “People began lining up at 5 p.m. and the crowds just kept on coming.”
The chain gave away a Grand Slam breakfast to anyone who showed up at all but two of its 1,550 restaurants nationwide.
The entire promotion — including food, labor and airing an ad on Sunday's Super Bowl — cost Denny's about $5 million. "We're re-acquainting America with Denny's," says CEO Nelson Marchioli. "We've never been thanked this much — and folks are saying they'll come back."
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