A Brief History of T.G.I. Friday's

By Frank Ruffo

Well fellow bloggers, blog followers and anyone else who sees fit to read this, it is time for another piece of history in the restaurant world. The place that I’m going to talk about is near and dear to my heart since my wife actually trained and helped open the first T.G.I.Friday’s in the Pittsburgh area some twenty eight years ago. The restaurant opened on January 10, 1983 and she happens to still be there; meeting, greeting and seating people at the Monroeville Friday’s near the mall. Let’s look at Friday’s beginning, innovations and evolvement through the years.

According to myjobsource.com, “Friday’s restaurants have a long history of innovation including being credited with: naming ‘happy hour’, inventing the Long Island Iced Tea and Loaded Potato Skins, and popularizing frozen and ice-cream alcoholic drinks.” Also, the founder of Friday’s, Alan Stillman, denies responsibility for coining the phrase “singles bar”, even though that phrase “came to embody Friday’s and its’ imitators”.

Okay, from the beginning. Alan Stillman was a salesman who according to an article by Milford Prewitt in Nations Restaurant News “saw an opportunity to cater to the young and affluent singles who lived in New York but who had few places to go for fun and drink.”  In 1965, Stillman opened the first Friday’s on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He introduced a casual themed element along with a menu that raised the quality of bar fare (the first menus were on a chalk board) and an element of fun. At about the same time, the “pill’’ came out and according to the article by Prewitt, “made it okay for nice girls to go out, even to drink alone.” Friday’s then began marketing directly to women. They came up with promotions of half-price drinks and ladies night. Stillman said it was “pure luck” on his part, “no skill was involved.”

The décor was Gay ‘90s memorabilia, Tiffany lamps, brass railings, red striped canopies and red and white striped table cloths, with the servers wearing red and white striped polo shirts. This continued well into the 2000s before a transformation of the décor started. There is more on this a little later.

Back to 1971 when Stillman decided to sell franchise agreements. There was one in Memphis, Nashville, Little Rock and Dallas. The Dallas franchise was so successful that Stillman decided to merge his New York Company with the franchisees, which included Dan Scoggins as a partner. In 1975, Stillman sold the majority interest to the Carlson Companies where Scoggins was named president of Friday’s and was to lead a national expansion. By the early 1980s, Friday’s had over 100 units that were all company owned.

In 1986, Friday’s hosted the first ever ‘Flair bartender contest.’ The winner went on to train Tom Cruise for his role in the movie Cocktail, which was released in 1988. The bar scenes were also filmed at the New York Friday’s. Friday’s still host the World Bartender Championships ever year, even though all Friday’s don’t always participate.

                                                   Through the 1990s and into the new millennium, according to Wikipedia, Friday’s has grown to over 1000 restaurants in 51 countries. The newer franchises and redesigned older restaurants are more contemporary. Gone are the Gay ‘90s décor and Tiffany lamps. The new décor has more of a ‘60s feel with memorabilia from that era along with striped lamps replacing the Tiffanies. A couple of things from the old décor were kept, and most Friday’s have them. They are the propeller and a rowing skull. The skull always contains a pair of saddle shoes and a bottle of champagne to remind employees of the value of Things have changed over the years and one big influence was alcohol awareness. Employees don’t get a free alcoholic beverage after their shift anymore and all employees have to have alcohol awareness training.  The menu has changed almost yearly, it seems. Favorites disappear and new ones arrive.  I think that what I’m trying to say here is that I enjoy Friday’s. I like the food and service and they have something for everyone on the menu, and like the sign says, “In Here, It’s Always Friday.”

Works Cited

Prewitt, Milford. "Stillman: Friday's Filled a Generations Need." Nation's Restaurant News, 29 March 1993. BNET. Web. 23 March 2011.

T.G.I. Friday's. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia 2009. Web. 23 March 2011.