OT: TGI Fridays closings in CNJ
- Thread starter Ronnie_B
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Eh, workplace wasn't it all it was cracked up to be in terms of productivity. And there is such a thing as hybrid which works fine for many folks. I also don't agree that younger generations aren't going out as much. The younger folks I work with go out, but their tastes have changed and they do different things. They are more likely to try a new restaurant (not a chain) offering better and more adventurous food.
This thread... 😂😂😂
Restaurant chains like Friday's come and go. Been happening forever. For every chain that goes away, three new ones pop up.
My favorite nonsensical delusion of the thread is that any politician's being elected will alter this long-repeating cycle. Be sure to vote and save TGI Fridays. 🤣
Restaurant chains like Friday's come and go. Been happening forever. For every chain that goes away, three new ones pop up.
My favorite nonsensical delusion of the thread is that any politician's being elected will alter this long-repeating cycle. Be sure to vote and save TGI Fridays. 🤣
It's not any one specific factor. Chain Restaurants have always come and gone (i.e. Ponderosa, Sizzler, Steak n Ale, Chi Chi's, TCBY, Charlie Browns, Macaroni Grill, Ho Jo's). The demise will likely continue at a faster pace especially since society dynamic has also changed since the pandemic with people choosing less social interaction and staying in by using Door Dash etc.
I did a quick web search and it showed that there are tons of relatively recent new restaurant chains up and running. Some will not make it, some will survive and thrive. I don't think there's anything different about 2024 or the 2020s or 2030s that would alter that.
I can't speak to how it is in other states or in south Jersey, but in central and northern NJ, I regularly see tons of people of all generations out enjoying a wide variety of restaurants, including chain restaurants. It's only anecdotal, but it makes me think that, despite our fellow forum members taking this opportunity to post their favorite negative theme de jure as the reason Friday's is going under, people in NJ will continue to frequent all kinds of restaurants.
So? They got old. The Fridays in Woodbridge has been sucking wind for at least a decade. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did without being closed.
It's going under because of those who discriminate against the end of the week.
Covid killed the Applebee's and Friday's in Flemington a few years ago (plus a few other spots). Places still sitting abandoned. Chilli's still making it though
Meh, never was a drinker so wasn't a happy hour guy. However, Tigers Tale is our local hangout, especially for politicking. LOL!
There was a Chi Chi's in East Brunswick back in the day. Loved that place! Route 18 near Mid-State Mall. Getting the nachos as a kid was a treat.
Some were selling fake booze
https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...nj-tgi-fridays-fined-switching-booze/2602903/
I see young people out eating meals all the time all over the upper half of NJ. Maybe you just don't hang out in places that appeal to young people. You can't expect that the next generation is going to adopt the same tastes for hangouts as our generation.
Some of the newer chains hold no appeal for me at all. Yet they're flooded with 20-somethings. Old stuff dies off and new stuff arises.
That's life.
Like Michael Collins before me, I will lay my life down for TGI Fridays, Applebee's, Ruby Tuesdays and the like! I don't want to live in a world without extreme fajitas, jalapeno poppers and loaded potato skins.
I don't know if I would be putting Friday's in the category of restaurants that come and go, they had a helluva run and for the longest time were the top bar restaurant in the country. One could argue they set the standard or at least took it to another level.
That might explain why the Friday's in Woodbridge, although not specifically mentioned in the article unless I missed it, became a ghost town over the past decade. My boys liked it when they were young, but we hadn't gone in many years as they got older and their tastes changed.
Went back roughly 5 years ago, on a weekend evening and it was more than half empty. The food was not very well prepared. We never went back after that.
I didn't put a time-limit on the duration of the cycle. For sure the Fridays in Woodbridge did great for a couple decades or more.
I'm just saying that it's nothing new or specific to current times that restaurants and restaurant chains come and go. @Knight Shift posted a bunch of others that were around and popular for decades but are either gone or on their way out now.
I honestly feel like Captain Obvious pointing out stuff that is so blatantly obvious. But I do enjoy countering silly narratives, and this thread has plenty of those. So I'll sacrifice for the forum and wear my Cap'n Obvious hat so as to inject a dose of reality. 🙂
I have no clue what you're babbling about now. Who said closing restaurants is something new?
It's a damn shame kids aren't getting hammered before dinner at the strip mall, then driving home? 😵💫
Seriously, though, Fridays hasn't been the place for that since like 1996.
TGIF in it's hey day was marginally ok. Never was it better than most local watering holes where they actually know your name and you know 1/2 the crowd in the place. Chain restaurants are a dying business model but people keep trying. I haven't been to any national fast food joint in years as the food is awful anymore. Chain restaurants are what they are...bad and expensive. I don't understand why people go to Buffalo Wild Wings to eat. Good place to watch sports but they serve the smallest chicken wings for a ransom. Went once would never go back. Support your local places. Where you can actually thank/complain or request your favorite food or drink to the owner and they will actually make it or bring it in just for you!
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Loved that place also. That sweet corn on the side was always a treat.
I used to go to the one in Edison and the one in Highland Park from time to time. The food was pretty good and pretty consistent.
Was never at the one in SPs, but one of my kids and his GF have and they say it's pretty good as well.
I thought chimney rock took over where fridays was on the circle?
Where was Applebees? Is Pizza Hut still there?
I remember the ones in Somerville & Flemington respectively pretty busy mid-late 2000’s, but then falling off after that
Wasn’t around that scene in mid 90s so not sure if it went downhill over that ~10-15 year span
This may be the first (and possibly) only time I’ve ever agreed, and wholeheartedly at that, with Bus
Tommy’s Tavern has taken the Fridays model and McCloune’d it (play on words from McCloune’s), if you will
Went to the one in bridgewater last week on a weeknight (across from the Bridgewater Commons mall and connected to the AC hotel) and have been to the freehold location
Place is always packed to the gills
Weeknights, Sundays when football isn’t on, doesn’t matter - places is always jammed
Went to the one in bridgewater last week on a weeknight (across from the Bridgewater Commons mall and connected to the AC hotel) and have been to the freehold location
Place is always packed to the gills
Weeknights, Sundays when football isn’t on, doesn’t matter - places is always jammed
I like the one in south Plainfield / Pway area
I believe that one is Scotch Plains closed down
I've only lived in the area for 8 years, but during that time my wife and I are shocked at how few restaurants to eat at in Flemington. Chimney Rock is obviously the place to go and the Chili's is holding it's own. I can't believe that other sit down restaurants can't make it there.
Watched the Tyson-Lewis fight there back in 02.
They originally had a beach volleyball court there, believe they donated it to the park around the corner.
Then it became a bank. Yay
Used to have one in Wayne which we went to a lot when we were newly married. Closed down about 8-10 years ago. Agree about the consistency of the food.
