The new restaurant, which opened on March 15, 1965, served standard American cuisine, bar food, and alcoholic beverages, but emphasized food quality and preparation. 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 TGI Fridays after the expression "Thank God it's Friday!" from his years at Bucknell University. At the time, Stillman's choices for socializing were non-public cocktail parties or "guys' beer-drinking hangout" bars that women usually would 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. He lived on 63rd Street between First and York, 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 on the corner of East 63rd and 1st Avenue, and hoped that opening a bar would help him meet women. TGI Fridays in Waterbury, Connecticut in June 2014.Īlan Stillman opened the first TGI Fridays restaurant in 1965, in New York. A TGI Fridays in Christ Church, Barbados in November 2010 (closed in August 2013). History A TGI Fridays in Manahawkin, New Jersey that opened in 2003 with the new design, seen in November 2006. TGI Fridays operates over 600 locations in 55 countries, including 292 in the United States. The restaurant's founder said the name stood for "Thank God It's Friday", although as of 2010 some television commercials for the chain have also made use of the phrase, "Thank Goodness It's Friday". They're definitely not alone in the mistake - other casual dining chains like Ruby Tuesday and Applebee's are in the same position - but misery doesn't always love company.TGI Fridays is an American restaurant chain focusing on primarily American cuisine and casual dining. They were hoping to capture a client base from suburban malls and their surrounding areas, and according to what CEO John Antioco told Business Insider, that decision made a massive contribution to their declining sales and struggles. For many restaurants, the fourth quarter of the year is their make-or-break, but now that a huge amount of holiday shopping is done online, that means it wasn't long ago that TGI Fridays made a decision that's now coming back to break them.Īround 2010, TGI Fridays was looking at where to put new locations, and set their sights on the suburban market. That's not just hurting stores, that's hurting the restaurants - like TGI Fridays - who are hoping to cash in on those hungry shoppers. TGI Fridays issued a statement shortly after the humiliating scandal, saying of the allegations "If accurate, they would represent a violation of our company's values and our extensive bar and beverage standards which are designed to deliver the highest guest experience in our restaurants."īut mall traffic is declining, and according to Restaurant Business, more and more people are choosing to do most of their shopping online. While it was not revealed to the public exactly which of the restaurants were serving the dirty water, we can't imagine there weren't many folks willing to take that gamble. And what did the officers find when they raided the 29 establishments that were involved in the sting? Not only were some switching premium brands with low-cost alcohol, but also truly disgusting trickery like serving rubbing alcohol mixed with caramel coloring instead of scotch, and filling liquor bottles with dirty water. In 2013, 13 TGI Fridays franchise locations that were all operated by a NJ-based hospitality company were part of a sting operation called "Operation Swill" by the NJ ABC and Division of Criminal Justice. No such thing as bad publicity? We'd venture to say that's definitely not the case when you are a casual-dining chain that gets busted for selling fake booze to its bar customers.
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