Is Applebee's Weekly Smart Phone Ban Going To Happen?

Thinking of Instagramming a photo of your wings, or Snapchatting your friends at Applebee's? The chain restaurant has submitted a trademark application for "No Tech Tuesday." Initial reports said that the Applebee's had plans to effectively ban smart phones, iPads, and other devices from the dinner table at all Applebee's locations on Tuesdays, but Applebee's denies that this is the case.

"Guests are welcome to use as much or as little tech as they want," Applebee's spokesman Dan Smith told Business Week. "Like many brands, we file many phrases for protection. There's absolutely zero percent linkage between No Tech Tuesday and anything in the restaurant."

The weekly focus on tech-less dinners would certainly be unusual, since Applebee's is in the process of rolling out tableside applications that would let customers order without a server, and "WhatsApplebees," a social app that connects Applebee's fans. Clearly you wouldn't be able to use these technologies on Tuesdays if a hypothetical ban were to be put into place.

Smart phone usage clashing with restaurants is definitely not new. A restaurant was panned recently for banning Google Glass, and a New York City restaurant has just anonymously blamed excessive usage of cell phones for slow service.