It’s been a year since Walker Hayes’s ode to Applebee’s became the song of the summer, but the country music star isn’t done capitalizing on its viral fame just yet — Hayes says he’s in talks with the chain restaurant to open a “fancy” Applebee’s on Broadway Street in Nashville.
Speaking in a recent podcast interview to promote his new single “Y’all Life,” the Alabama native said there was “talk of us for real opening [an Applebee’s] down on Broadway in Nashville. Like a ‘Fancy Like’ Applebee’s,” Hayes said. He adds later in the interview, “It’s a good time to be a country artist.” There’s only one location of the restaurant in Nashville currently, on Thompson Lane in Berry Hill.
“Fancy Like,” engineered by Hayes and Nashville songwriters Shane Stevens, Cameron Bartolini, and Josh Jenkins, became an inescapable hit with crossover appeal in June 2021. It had real-life impact on the struggling brand, influencing it to bring back the Oreo shake mentioned in the song, discontinued early on in the pandemic. As Eater’s Amy McCarthy wrote at the time, “One can only imagine the kind of intense ecstasy felt by the suits in the Applebee’s marketing department as soon as ‘Fancy Like’ started to trend,” resulting in a flood of TikTok influencers posting videos of their Applebee’s date nights.
Eater has reached out to Applebee’s for comment but has not yet heard back. Luckily for Hayes, Applebee’s isn’t the only brand referenced in the song — Natural Light beer and Wendy’s also get shoutouts, leaving room for more endorsements if the restaurant doesn’t work out.
