TGI Fridays has a case of the Mondays: The once-popular hotspot for hookups and loaded potato skins filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the weekend.
Executive chairman Rohit Manocha blamed it on the company’s inability to bounce back financially from the Covid-19 pandemic. All 39 US locations owned by the company will remain open during the restructuring process—the 56 restaurants owned by independent operators are not part of the filing.
Speaking of restaurants, TGI Fridays has a lot fewer of them now. It closed 36 locations in January and abruptly shuttered another 50 last week.
From singles bar to family-friendly
As chronicled by Delish, the original location on NYC’s Upper East Side that opened in 1965 became one of the first singles bars in the US, proving that Liz Lemon was correct—mozzarella sticks can be an aphrodisiac. The cool factor was so strong that TGI Fridays said its bartenders trained Tom Cruise for his role in 1988’s Cocktail. As drinking culture evolved and women became more welcome in bars that were beer-first, appetizers-second, TGI Fridays rebranded as a family restaurant, becoming more known for the pieces of flair that inspired the chain restaurant Chotchkie’s in 1999’s Office Space.
Another casual dining casualty: Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy this year, as did the Tex-Mex chain Tijuana Flats and ice cream chain Oberweis Dairy. The industry is on track to declare more bankruptcies in 2024 than in any other year going back decades (besides 2020), per the WSJ.—DL