BROOKINGS — The Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar in Brookings is closing its doors. Tuesday is the last day the restaurant at 3001 Lefevre Drive will be open for business.

“We officially close (Tuesday, April 29),” Schuyler Zychowicz, kitchen manager at the Brookings Applebee’s, said. “That’s our last business day.”

He said franchise owners made the decision based on slowing business conditions at the Brookings location.

“Business is very slow,” Zychowicz said. “We can’t keep workers. We can’t keep staff.”

Zychowicz — who began working at the Brookings Applebee’s in 2019 — said the pandemic started the slowdown and business conditions at the restaurant never fully recovered.

“To me and the GM, it was like we knew it was coming,” he said. “We found out last month. … Most all of the employees here already found a different job. They’re good. They’re set. Some of them are college kids, so they’re moving back home. Some of them were already leaving at the end of May, so this just sped up their timeframe to go home sooner.”

Zychowicz said he and the staff understand this is just a business decision.

“Everyone’s in good spirits,” he said. “People who have been working here have already found different jobs, so they’re mostly good to go. Some of them are transferring to the Watertown store or the Sioux Falls store.”

He said he enjoyed working at Applebee’s and will miss both the customers and his co-workers.

“It’s been a good run,” Zychowicz said. “We enjoyed our time together. We loved serving every faithful guest and every one of our regulars who came in. We loved seeing them.”

The Brookings restaurant was one of six Applebee’s in South Dakota. There are two in Sioux Falls and one each in Watertown, Rapid City and Spearfish. The Brookings location opened in fall 2003.

Contact Jay Roe at jroe@brookingsregister.com.