TGI Friday's, also known as TGI Fridays or simply Fridays, is an American
restaurant chain focusing on casual dining.
The company is a unit of the Sentinel Capital Partners and TriArtisan Capital
Partners, who purchased the company from Carlson Companies in May 2014. Its name
is taken from the expression TGIF. The company asserts that it stands for
"Thank Goodness It's Friday", although as of 2010 some television commercials
for the chain have also made use of the alternative phrase, "Thank God It's
Friday's." The chain is known for its appearance, with red-striped canopies,
brass railings, Tiffany lamps, and frequent use of antiques as decor.
History Alan Stillman opened the first T.G.I.
Friday's restaurant in 1965 in New York. He lived in a neighborhood with many
airline stewardesses, fashion models, secretaries, and other young, single
people on the East Side of Manhattan near the Queensboro Bridge, and hoped
that opening a bar would help him meet women. At the time, Stillman's choices
for socializing were non-public cocktail parties or "guys' beer-drinking hangout"
bars that women usually did not visit; he recalled that "there was no public
place for people between, say, twenty-three to thirty-seven years old,
to meet." He sought to recreate the comfortable cocktail party atmosphere in
public despite having no experience in the restaurant business.
With $5,000 of his own money and $5,000 borrowed from his mother, Stillman
purchased a bar he often visited, The Good Tavern at the corner of 63rd Street
and First Avenue, and renamed it T.G.I. Friday's after the expression "Thank
God! It's Friday!" from his years at Bucknell University. The new restaurant,
which opened on March 15, 1965, served standard American cuisine, bar food, and
alcoholic beverages, but emphasized food quality and preparation. The exterior
featured a red-and-white striped awning and blue paint, the Gay Nineties
interior included fake Tiffany lamps, wooden floors, Bentwood chairs, and
striped tablecloths, and the bar area added brass rails and stained glass. The
employees were young and wore red-and-white striped soccer shirts, and
every time someone had a birthday, the entire restaurant crew came around with
a cake and sang Friday's traditional birthday song. The first location closed
in 1994 and is now a British pub called "Baker Street"; the brass rails are
still there. Although Malachy McCourt's nearby
eponymous bar preceded T.G.I. Friday's and Stillman credited the media for
creating the term, he had unintentionally created one of the first
singles bars. It benefited from the near-simultaneous availability of the
birth-control pill and Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique:
I don’t think there was anything else like it at the time. Before T.G.I.
Friday’s, four single twenty-five year-old girls were not going out on
Friday nights, in public and with each other, to have a good time. They went to
people’s apartments for cocktail parties or they might go to a real restaurant
for a date or for somebody’s birthday, but they weren’t going out with each
other to a bar for a casual dinner and drinks because there was no such place
for them to go. T.G.I. Friday's was one of the first to
use promotions such as ladies' night, and Stillman achieved his hopes of
meeting women; "Have you seen the movie Cocktail? Tom Cruise played me!...Why do
girls want to date the bartender? To this day, I’m not sure that I get it."
He and the restaurant benefited from its location—according to Stillman, 480
stewardesses lived in the apartment building next door—and received
publicity in national magazines. T.G.I. Friday's became so popular that it had
to install ropes to create an area for those waiting in line, also unusual at
the time for a restaurant. A competitor, Maxwell's Plum, opened across the
street, and others soon followed. With fellow Bucknell graduate Ben
Benson, Stillman opened other restaurants, including Tuesday's,
Thursday's, Wednesday's, and Ice Cream Sunday's. Franchising of T.G.I. Friday's
began in 1971 in Memphis, Tennessee in the Overton Square district; that
location has since closed. In 1971 Daniel R. Scoggin acquired the rights to
eight major midwest cities. In 1972 he opened with the first of a new prototype
in Dallas. The raised square bar and multilevel dining became the company
standard. Dallas doubled the sales and tripled profits of Friday's previous
best. Attracted by this performance, Alan Stillman merged into the Dallas
franchise forming T.G.I. Friday's, Inc. Mr. Scoggin was the CEO for the next 15
years. He is credited with the then-new 200 seat prototype as well as many of
the Friday's innovations including a large from scratch menu, potato skins,
bartender Olympics, and frozen drinks. The company was sold to Carlson
Companies in 1975. With this sale Mr. Stillman and the original investors
departed. Mr. Stillman kept the original location and now married, founded Smith
& Wollensky in 1977 with Benson. Mr. Scoggin continued as CEO on an earn-out
contract and finalized his sale in 1980. When the sale was finalized, Mr. Scoggin
signed a new contract to continue as the company's CEO. When the company was
passing through the 100 store mark it issued an Initial Public Offering in
1983 with Goldman Sachs. Mr. Scoggin developed the first international
franchise and the template for future international development. The first
restaurant was opened in the UK with Whitbread. Prior to his departure in
1986, the company was positioned to appeal to a broader consumer profile.
Alcohol consumption was de-emphasized, emphasizing quality over quantity.
The company became privately held again in 1989. The focus was then switched
from singles to families. A brand extension, which features the
Friday's concept combined with the atmosphere of a sports bar and is called
Friday's Front Row Sports Grill, is found at two Major League Baseball
stadiums which each overlook the playing field: Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona
and Milwaukee's Miller Park. Historically, the chain's highest
grossing location is at Haymarket Leicester Square, which opened in 1992
in Central London. The Haymarket branch is also regarded as the 'most popular'
branch as well as being financially most successful. In October 2009, Haymarket
broke the world record for biggest profit made in any week, throughout
T.G.I Friday's history, and has also been home to several past winners from
the bartenders Olympics, a contest started by Dan Scoggin.
On May 20, 2014, T.G.I. Friday's was resold to Sentinel Capital Partners and
TriArtisan Capital Partners. Franchisees
T.G.I. Friday's is a franchising operation, with franchisers owning most
of the outlets. The largest franchiser is The Briad Group in New Jersey. An
international franchisee was Whitbread PLC, the owner of TGI Friday's UK. Up
until 2007, it had 45 locations in the UK. On January 17, 2007, Whitbread sold
operating rights of all 45 restaurants back to TGI Friday's UK Limited thus
exiting a partnership formed in 1986. Friday's has also been used as a
restaurant for hotels run by Country Inns & Suites by Carlson brand.
In 2013, as part of "Operation Swill", investigators in New Jersey raided 13
T.G.I. Friday's franchised restaurants owned by The Briad Group. They found
that the bars were substituting premium brand alcoholic beverages with
lower-cost brands, while charging them for the more expensive liquor.
Design The newer T.G.I. Friday's franchises are
more contemporary, with wallpaper, granite exteriors, and red-and-white
striped lamps instead of Tiffany. The exteriors have stucco, the entrance
doors have "F"-shaped handles, and a metal cup above the door has a stripe
saying "In Here, It's always Friday". Most Friday's have a propeller and a
rowing scull on display as part of their antiques, which are actually a part of a
story told to all Friday's employees; the scull always contains a pair of
saddle shoes and a bottle of champagne to remind employees of the value of
teamwork, leadership, and celebrating success. The propeller is always above
or near the bar. The thought is that the bar "propels" the restaurant.
Menu Friday's has a large menu with an
emphasis on alcoholic beverages. T.G.I. Friday's formerly served
Atkins-approved appetizers, entrées, and desserts. In 2006, the Atkins name was
removed from the menu, but the restaurant continues to offer both
low-carbohydrate and low-fat menu items. The UK menu offers gluten-free items.
= Licensed products= The company licenses its name to Heinz
which produces a line of frozen foods sold in grocery stores. A line of snack
items and pre-mixed liquor drinks are also licensed and sold. The franchise’s
exteriors were redesigned in 2009 by Gilfillan Callahan Architects,
represented by Carlson Restaurants Worldwide.
Global operations Friday's currently has over 900
restaurants in around 60 countries. Africa
Americas Asia
Europe Oceania
Notes: See also
List of casual dining restaurant chains List of restaurants in New York City
References External links
Official website