(Northport, NY) – On Veteran’s Day, November 11th, Applebee’s will once again pay tribute to veterans and active duty military who drop by their Long Island restaurants by providing a free meal in their honor. Yesterday, however, Applebee’s turned the tables and dropped by Long Island’s Northport VA Medical Center to serve those veterans who may not get to their restaurants on Veteran’s Day.

“Serving more than 1400 veterans and their families was our challenge and our privilege,” said Marc Prince, Director of Operations for Applebee’s Long Island restaurants. “We were so glad we came with an army of volunteers—we wanted to serve as many deserving veterans as possible. Dozens of servers and kitchen staff from our restaurants offered to help out—some served, others manned the grills. Everyone was there to honor the veterans.”

The event was the largest held by Applebee’s at one location on a single day. The barbeque grills were heated up and smoking for several hours as 320 lbs. of burgers, 120 lbs. of chicken and 100 racks of baby ribs were grilled up and served along with Applebee’s Shrimp & Island Rice, penne pasta and salad. While Applebee’s saluted the veterans, the Northport VA Medical Center celebrated the coming of autumn and provided a full day of Harvest Festival activities with live music, an antique car show, and horse drawn carriage rides for the veterans and their families.