APPLEBEE'S RESTAURANT TO OPEN HERE

An informal restaurant will open in September in the Cape Centre shopping area.

The restaurant, Applebee's, is being constructed at the southeast corner of the Route K and Broadview intersection.

"Applebee's is a bar and grill," said Applebee's International spokesman Bob Martin in Kansas City. "It's in the casual-dining field. We feature prices that don't hurt the pocketbook," he said.

The local restaurant is the first for the chain in non-metropolitan Missouri. Applebee's operates 12 restaurants in the Kansas City area and three in St. Louis. Those 15 are part of 174 company restaurants in the country concentrated in the Midwest and Southeast. The concept originated in the Atlanta area.

Applebee's said Dennis Stockard of DeJoy's Inc., of Cape Girardeau bought the franchise rights for the restaurant.

The local restaurant will cover 4,778 square feet, slightly larger than the average Applebee's 4,500-square-foot restaurants. The company said the restaurant here will seat more than 100 people.

Ralph Construction Co., of Cape Girardeau is general contractor for the building. Construction began June 20.