OUR STORY
1965
The first T.G.I. Friday’s® restaurant opens in New York City at the corner of First Avenue and 63rd Street. T.G.I. Friday’s on Manhattan’s upper East Side quickly becomes THE meeting place for single adults, totaling $1 million in revenues its first year. The first T.G.I. Friday’s menu was a chalkboard.
1970’s
The company expands to the city that the King of Rock n’ Roll Elvis Presley made famous: Memphis, Tennessee.
T.G.I. Friday’s starts its tradition of welcoming Friday in at midnight on Thursday night. Every Thursday night is like a New Year’s Eve party, with champagne, confetti and noisemakers.
«Thursdays are always the big deal at Friday’s, since that’s when the usually packed-anyway restaurant has its midnight gala with balloons and champagne.» – Dallas Times Herald, March 30, 1972.
«It all began modestly enough. An unmarried New York City perfume salesman named Alan Stillman decided that the coolest way to meet the stewardesses in his neighborhood would be to buy a broken down beer joint, jazz it up with Tiffany lamps and mod young waiters and christen it – with an eye toward attracting the career crowd – the T.G.I.F. (Thank God It’s Friday) crowd. Within one week the police had to ring Friday’s (as it quickly became known) with barricades to handle the nightly hordes of young singles. Hundreds of blatantly imitative emporiums soon opened their doors in scores of major cities – and an industry was born.» –Newsweek, July 16, 1973.
After months in the test kitchen, T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants introduce what will become all-time favorite – Loaded Potato Skins.
1980’s
T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants introduce Friday’s Flings and Smoothies, flavorful, non-alcoholic drinks and the chain grows to 105 restaurants, and the following year celebrates its 20th anniversary.
TGI Friday’s Inc. signs their first international development agreement with Whitbread & Co. PLC of London and the first restaurant opens in Birmingham, England and later enters into its first international joint venture to operate T.G.I. Friday’s in Asia.
1990’s
The T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant is now in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Panama and Switzerland and more. Seoul, Korea becomes home to the 300th restaurant.
Celebration of 30th anniversary in 1995!!!
Booths are added to T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants, and the interior wood is lightened to brighten the atmosphere.
Jack Daniel’s Grill makes its national debut!
T.G.I. Friday’s becomes the first American casual dining restaurant chain to open a restaurant in Moscow, Russia. And later debuts in London/Heathrow Airport.
T.G.I. Friday’s launches its newly redesigned website – www.fridays.com.
2000’s
T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants debut in more new countries – Iceland, Alaska and Saudi Arabia!
By the end of 2002, there were 522 Friday’s restaurants in the USA and 191 international locations, for a total of 713 restaurants. System-wide sales for 2002 were $2.1 billion.
Los Angeles City Search readers voted the Magic Johnson’s Friday’s in Ladera as «Top 10 Best After Work Bar.»
The revitalization of the T.G.I. Friday’s begins… New restaurant design, new menu, new lighting, new music!
Carlson Restaurants Worldwide and T.G.I. Friday’s were selected by the Dallas Business Journal as one of the Best Places to Work in Dallas Ft. Worth.
Carlson Restaurants Worldwide acquires 45 T.G.I. Friday’s in the UK from Whitbread PLC.
T.G.I. Friday’s teams up with Food Network «Ultimate Recipe Showdown» – features five best-in-class recipes as determined by national recipe contest in its 600+ US-based restaurants.
lan Saunders is named President and Chief Operating Officer of T.G.I. Friday’s International.
In 2025 TGI Fridays has opened its doors to the people of Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
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