T.G.I. Friday's
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| T.G.I. Friday's | |
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| Type | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Casual dining |
| Founded | New York City, New York, United States (1965) |
| Headquarters | |
| Website | http://www.tgifridays.com/ |
T.G.I. Friday's (often referred to as just "Fridays") is an American restaurant chain focusing on casual dining, with over 500 restaurants across the United States, Canada, Mexico and the UK, as well as many other countries around the world. The company is a unit of the Carlson Companies. The name is taken from the expression "TGIF", or "Thank God It's Friday." The restaurant chain is known for its appearance, with red-striped canopies, brass railings, Tiffany lamps, and frequent use of antiques as decor.
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[edit] Overview
The newer T.G.I. Friday's franchises, or redesigned ones, 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 with a stripe saying "In Here, It's always Friday".
Friday's has a large menu with an emphasis on alcoholic beverages. A section of their menu is dedicated to the "Jack Daniel's Grill", a selection of items flavored with a special Jack Daniel's sauce. Fridays formerly was associated with Atkins approved appetizers, entrees, and desserts. Since 2006, the menu has discontinued the Atkins name and several platters were redubbed "Low Carb".
The Friday's restaurant chain was founded in 1965 in New York City, featuring standard American cuisine, bar food, and alcoholic beverages. The exterior featured a red-and-white striped awning, and blue paint, and the interior included wooden floors, Bentwood chairs, and striped tablecloth. The bar area added brass rails, and stained glass. The employees were young, with wacky uniforms, and every time you had someone's birthday, the whole restaurant crew came around with a cake, and singing Friday's traditional Birthday song. The restaurant's second location was established in 1970 in Memphis, Tennessee's Overton Square district. That location has since closed.
The oldest continually operating Friday's is in Louisville, Kentucky on Linn Station Road. It opened in August 1977 and at the time was the 31st store in operation. This location will be celebrating a 30 year anniversary in 2007.
[edit] Parodies
The restaurant was parodied in the 1999 movie Office Space as Chotchkie's, poking fun at Friday's hyper-friendly employees and their garish uniforms adorned with "flair" (such as buttons, sunglasses or funny hats). It has also been parodied in The Catherine Tate Show.
Another parody of the restaurant occurred in the Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II" where a human version of the character Bender is seen stumbling out of a D.U.I. Friday's.
Yet another parody is found on an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. Mr. Krabs sells the beloved Krusty Krab to a group which changes the name to "Krabby O' Mondays" (which is also a parody of Beef o' Brady's) along with the famous red canopies and suspender wearing servers. Squidward even is requested to sing the famous Birthday Song to a young tyke.
[edit] Trivia
- Friday's has also been used as a restaurant for hotels run by the Holiday Inn brand.
- Friday's is the model for the New York saloon that Tom Cruise's character wishes to franchise in the movie Cocktail.
- The restaurant also licenses consumer packaged goods such as snack items and frozen foods in grocery stores around the country.
- George Carlin, in one bit, rants about the cuteness of the restaurant's name, and suggests a better name would be H.S.I.O.W, or Holy Shit, It's Only Wednesday.
- In the movie Click some executives from Japan said that T.G.I. Friday's was "America's greatest cultural achievement".
- In episode 160 of 'King of the Hill' first aired Sunday Feb. 15 2004, a homosexual reference was made to TGI Friday's wherein a character in the show, speaking to 'Bill' (acting as a homosexual character) said "you must find it difficult living here with no 24-hour gym and no TGI Friday's".
