Better mozzarella sticks, too, not that that's a high bar. It's not an accident they called out Applebee's by name. They knew what they were doing.

Buffalo Wild Wings followed the same pattern as any other rapidly expanding chain - start with an okay product, get name recognition, expand quickly with excessive financing, and then cut costs (and hence quality) while milking the brand's original reputation.

I'm sure a few people cashed out along the way.

Honestly, BWW had the best tap lineup in my area for a long time, which has no shortage of trendy bars.

The first time I walked into a BWW (maybe 10 or 15 years ago) my eyes opened wide when I saw all the taps.

My excitement wore off when I realized that it was literally all budweiser products and most of them had the exact same thing.

Ah yea. Good beers took a while to come to my area (maybe 5-10 years ago). I'm guessing other parts of the country might have been a little different, especially as Big Beer tried to catch the craft wave and smaller breweries didn't have any distribution yet. Maybe it's different now in most areas (hopefully)

I live(d?) in SF and would on occasion rent a car just to drive to Buffalo Wild Wings :)

Too true.