As heritage brands like Red Lobster and TGI Fridays struggle to stay upright, the 89-year-old Friendly’s family-dining chain is opening restaurants again, though with more than a few tweaks to a concept that started with 5-cent ice cream cones.
The first of the new wave has quietly fired up its grills in Orlando, Florida, an enthusiastic vote of confidence in the brand by franchisee Amol Kohli. He switched from the patron’s side of the counter to the business side at age 15, starting as a waiter and working his way up to operating about a third of what’s left of the regional 100-plus-unit chain.
With his newest unit, he’s attempting to hold onto the elements that have embedded Friendly’s in the memories of families up and down the East Coast, though with concessions large and small to the assumed tastes of the uninitiated.
The first thing patrons see upon entering the new unit is the Fribble Wall, an homage to Friendly’s Blizzard-like signature milkshakes. They pre-date the Blizzard by about 50 years.
But patrons are also likely to smell the cookies being baked on premises, a new feature of the brand. The treats are used in a modern riff on ice cream sandwiches, with the cookies replacing the usual chocolate wafers. They’re also sold individually for $3 a pop, along with brownies and muffins.
“I wanted to figure out a way to keep it memorable but a little more modern, but also brighter and joyful,” says Kohli.
Ergonomics were studied to simplify operations for staff. | Photo courtesy of Friendly's
The new store ends the vacillation Friendly’s has shown in past decades about what it wants to be. Is it an ice cream parlor that also sports savory options, often in the form of comfort foods, or is it a breakfast, lunch and dinner concept with an array of frozen treats for dessert?
Kohli’s new store plays up the ice cream array, with a significant amount of floor space dedicated to “the ice cream station, or what I call the creation station,” he says. “It really screams confectionary.”
The store’s menu was curated to include die-hard fans’ longtime favorites, from the Fishamajig fish sandwich to the Friendly’s Pattymelt and Mini Mozzes, or fried miniature mozzarella sticks. But lighter items like salads have also been mixed in, a concession to changing tastes.
“We had to make the menu more relevant,” says Sherif Mityas, CEO of Friendly’s parent Brix Holdings. “That was a big step.”
There was also the question of how large the menu should be. Over the decades, Friendly’s menu has expanded and contracted like an accordion. At one point, the bill of fare felt as voluminous as The Cheesecake Factory’s. After one change in ownership, the listing contracted to something closer to the menu board of a fast-food place.
“Forty to 50 core menu items is perfect,” Mityas says of the new menu. “It’s not huge, it’s not too tight.”
To keep it fresh, the roster will be updated three times a year, with three to five new selections included in each update.
“There’s something there for everyone,” says Kohli. And that means over the full course of the day. The unit, like about 25% of the Friendly’s system, features breakfast as well as lunch and dinner. Products like the Mini Mozzes are intended to pull in mid-afternoon and late-night snackers as well.
Similarly, the bill of fare abounds in items that are intended to scream value, like the line of oversized SuperMelt sandwiches.
Other lures are similarly aimed at families. Chalk is available for kids to draw on the exterior sidewalks, and families can try their hand at action games like cornhole.
Kohli drew on his experiences with Friendly’s and other concepts he’s operated over the years to simplify the new store’s operations. With outdoor areas in use, the store can seat up to 150 people.
“We looked at the number of steps [servers] are taking,” recounts Kohli. “Can they move in and out of the kitchen full-hands out, full-hands in? How are the stocking areas? It all flows very nicely.”
The store was also outfitted with modern technology. “You’re seeing pay-at-the-table, a brand new POS system, our use of Ovation,” a social-media monitoring tool, says Mityas. “Our general managers get feedback in real time on their phones.”
Kohli describes the design process as a highly collaborative endeavor with Brix, which also owns Red Mango, Super Salad, Smoothie Factory + Kitchen and Pizza Jukebox. The ink is still drying on its deal to purchase the Clean Juice chain.
“One of the first things we did was rethink what the brand stands for,” says Mityas “It’s always been this family-oriented, celebratory concept with an emphasis on ice cream.
“This nostalgia piece is great, but is it dated? Is it old?” he continues.
For instance, could it accommodate the heightened demand for to-go and delivery?
Today, says Mityas, off-premise business accounts for “north of 20%” of sales. And that’s come without distorting what the concept is all about. About a fifth of those orders include ice cream, according to the CEO.
Brix believes the Orlando store has found that balance between the Friendly’s people remember and a modernized place the uninitiated might want to try.
“We couldn’t be happier with Friendly’s right now,” says Mityas. “All the pieces add up. Friendly’s is back. It’s not only back, it’s cool again.”
The comeback strategy calls for opening three to five new Friendly’s stores next year. Kohli’s Orlando store recently has its soft opening, with a grand debut planned for the summer.
At that development pace, a significant amount of time would be needed to get the chain back to the 500 stores it boasted in its heyday. About six branches were shut last year, according to the company, with Technomic reporting an 8.1% decline in systemwide sales.
But the pruning has stopped, according to Mityas. He anticipates the closing of no more than about three stores, a result of leases not being renewed or the units no longer being feasible because their markets have tanked.
Simultaneously, “We’re trying to get out of the Northeast Corridor,” says Mityas. Founded in Massachusetts, the brand has always been eastern-centric. Previous attempts to expand beyond that stronghold were thwarted by a lack of recognition of what a Friendly’s is. Brix believes the 2024 version of the brand conveys that sense upon a first glimpse.
Some expansion opportunities will undoubtedly come from franchising the family concept to operators of the other operations in Brix’s fold, according to the CEO. The company is already planning its first meeting of franchisees across all of its brands.
In addition, “co-branding is definitely a part of our strategy,” Mityas says.
That extends not only to pairing restaurants, but also cross-pollinating menu items. For instance, Red Mango’s frozen yogurt is already available in at least one Friendly’s.