2 million enjoy free breakfast at Denny's

— -- But in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, the unemployed medical assistant from Greenville, S.C., waited 40 minutes in near-freezing temperatures outside a Denny's restaurant for a free Grand Slam breakfast. Roughly 2 million other Americans lined up at local Denny's for the too-good-to-pass-up deal.

"It's definitely a blessing," says Richardson, 35, who has been out of work since May. "I've put in applications everywhere — Wal-Mart, Kmart. I haven't heard nothin'."

With the economy in a tailspin, Denny's shook up the restaurant industry — if not the nation — Tuesday by doing something no family dining chain had done before: giving out free meals coast-to-coast from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m.

An entire varsity basketball team came to a Denny's in North Hollywood, Calif. Dozens of college students skipped class in Jacksonville. Hundreds lined up in Fresno. The pre-dawn line was so long in Fort Collins, Colo., the Denny's opened 30 minutes early. The promotion was briefly halted and rain checks given out at a St. Louis Denny's when parking lot traffic nearly cut access to a freeway artery. Most sites averaged hour waits on what's usually the week's slowest day.

By midmorning Denny's in several places ran out of — horrors — pancake syrup. (The usually $5.99 Grand Slam includes two eggs, two strips of bacon, two sausages and two pancakes.)

The entire promotion — including food, labor and airing an ad on Sunday's Super Bowl — cost Denny's about $5 million. "We're re-acquainting America with Denny's," says CEO Nelson Marchioli. "We've never been thanked this much — and folks are saying they'll come back."

The gambit earned Denny's something that money alone can't buy: positive public relations, and lots of it. By Denny's estimates, it got $50 million in free news coverage, almost all of it positive. No injuries — or police issues — were reported at any locations, say Denny's officials.

"I'm very grateful," said Jennifer Haslam, who waited in line more than an hour in Newark, Del., with son Joshua, 2. "That was four eggs that I didn't have to use of mine." Her family lives on her husband's take-home pay of $400 a week. "I'll be honest. I just paid my rent. I had $10 to my name, and that went to gas."