TGI Fridays has sold 19 more restaurants as part of its ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
The locations went to a pair of existing franchisees, according to bankruptcy documents filed Friday. Yadav Enterprises is buying 16 stores for $3 million in debt plus additional costs and liabilities. Fremont, California-based Yadav operates more than 340 restaurants across six brands.
Sugarloaf Hospitality is acquiring three locations for $100,000 plus the cash in the restaurants and some other obligations, excluding debt and other liabilities. Sugarloaf is owned by Ray Blanchette, the former CEO of TGI Fridays.
All but one of the 19 restaurants are located on the East Coast.
The transaction follows the sale in January of nine locations to restaurant operator Mera Corp. for $34.5 million. That deal included five high-grossing units in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
In a separate filing Friday, the bankruptcy court approved TGI Fridays’ request to reject the leases of six other locations in Maryland, New York and New Jersey.
Dallas-based TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy in November with $37 million in debt following years of sales declines and unit closures. The filing applied only to its 39 company-operated locations, most of which have now been either sold or closed.
As of Monday, the chain had 129 restaurants in the U.S., per its website, after entering bankruptcy with 163. It has lost more than half of its domestic footprint over the past year.
In an email, Blanchette confirmed the acquisition of TGI Fridays restaurants in Valley Stream and Central Islip, New York, and in a Hilton Garden Inn in Hollywood. They joined his existing group of eight TGI Fridays in the Northeast, which he acquired in early 2024.
“Hollywood obviously isn’t contiguous with the rest of our Northeast portfolio,” he wrote. “But this project has strategic implications for brand growth with an important partner, so we are taking over management of that property.”
Sugarloaf previously bid on the nine locations that sold in January to Mera Corp.
Blanchette was TGI Fridays’ CEO from 2018 to 2023 and previously spent 18 years with the chain’s former owner, Carlson. TGI Fridays has reportedly tapped him to manage its nearly 400 global franchised restaurants, replacing the consulting firm that took over after the company lost control of most of its assets in September.
Yadav Enterprises had not responded to a request for comment as of publication time. According to its LinkedIn page, the company operates 343 restaurants across six brands: Jack in the Box, Denny’s, El Pollo Loco, Corner Bakery Cafe, Sizzler and TGI Fridays. They’re located in Northern California, Texas and six Midwest states.
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