Few will mourn the demise of TGI Fridays, whose parent company collapsed into administration this week. The restaurant chain’s 87 branches in the UK have been put up for sale. Only a fool would think they could turn around TGIs’ fortunes. The truth is that the British obsession with American food, and specifically American diners, was never going to end well.
Attempts to imitate American cuisine over here are a bit embarrassing
When TGI Fridays first opened in Britain it was, for a time, a roaring success. The original TGIs was a cocktail bar on the Upper East Side of Manhattan which opened in March 1965. It was an instant hit, especially with single young men and women, since it offered a place to drink and carouse in public with members of the opposite sex.
The first UK opening TGIs opened in 1986 in Birmingham; a London outpost followed a year later. By the early 1990s, its Leicester Square branch was the place to be seen.
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