"Our nominees will provide fresh thinking, and they are completely independent from the mistakes of the past," says Breeden. "With changes in both personnel and policies, we believe that Applebee's can be a competitive success, not a study in stagnation." Connecticut-based BCM owns 4.02 million shares of Applebee's stock, or 5.42% of the total outstanding shares.

After a disappointing fourth quarter of 2006, Applebee's announced this month that it would shutter 24 of its 1,940 stores after company officials hunkered down in February to consider ways for ending the weak stretch. According to some observers, the firm has been hurt for much of the decade by changes in dining trends. One analyst told GSR in a recent article that the company was squeezed at both ends of the market given its traditional presence as a middle-level eatery.

The analyst told GSR that the store closings seemed insufficient to address Applebee's larger issues, and Breeden reiterated that notion in his proxy filing. According to the CEO, Applebee's "has yet to take significant actions to cut bloated expenses, to deploy capital only where it will generate the highest return, and to restructure the business to meet today's market conditions such as by re-franchising hundreds of restaurants currently owned by the company," of which there were 528 prior to the latest closings.