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Friendly's to get even harder to find in the Boston area

WBZ reports Friendly's is shrinking even more, closing outlets in Waltham and Framingham as part of an overall retrenchment across the Northeast. The Norwood Friendly's will remain open, at least for now.

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i thought i remembered them saying they were going to make the restaurants cleaner and the service better? i haven't noticed much of a change to either.

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They used to be in the little Charlestown shopping center in Thompson Square, but closed years ago. Within the past year, they also closed in front of the Watertown Mall. That one is turning into something truly useless, a Chase Bank branch.

I also recall one in Coolidge Corner that they tried to modernize into a new format, only to close it soon afterwards.

Looks like they will still be open in Stoneham, near the zoo.

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Breakfast was always good!

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Friendly's was my daughter's favorite place to eat for a long time. We would find one on the way back from gymnastic meets, so I've sampled a lot of them. Quality was always variable over both time and location. They keep playing with the menu. A few years ago, they had some very good offerings. I remember the steak tips in particular. That menu lasted about a year, and every version since has had fewer choices.

It could have been a respectable restaurant, if it had better quality control.

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Correct about the variability. My family loves Friendly's, but even at the same location, it could be fine one day and bad a week later.

The people who run the company seem to be idiots, re-branding every year or two. This seems to require the restaurants to buy entirely new dinnerware in a lot of cases, which is moronic. Literally nobody is going to make a decision about eating at Friendly's based on what kind of dish their fries come in.

If they had focused on their core menu and quality control, it seems like that would have been a better strategy (but no consultant would get paid to redesign the interiors that way), but the whole family sit-down restaurant sector is struggling (damn millennials!) so it may be a lost cause.

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There was a Friendly's in Harvard Square, and also one in Chestnut Hill, as well.

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Closing on November 10. The Saugus location also recently closed. This leaves only a Logan Airport terminal location within Route 128.

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Friendly should close the restaurant concept, it's over for that. Just go with all ice cream model and open smaller stands in towns.

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their ice cream sucks compared to everyone else's.

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By the time food finally gets brought to your table you're starving and have already begun to nibble on the plastic menus.

It's a strategy.

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:(

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As opposed to most other ice creams out there? Which specific chemicals does Friendly's use that other brands don't?

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rip kevin the best waiter at the waltham friendly's forever. i hope he has a lot of happiness in his life now

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maybe change the name for mass

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Or maybe just a snarly "Sup Bro??"

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A long time ago when I lived in Watertown Square, I was stunned when I visited the nearby Friendly's one summer evening to buy ice cream. The hours for the place were like 10am-6pm Monday-Thursday, 10-8 Friday-Saturday, 12-4 Sunday. It was 90 degrees outside, sunny, and the place was closed.

That Friendy's was the only ice cream shop within miles, and it was run like they were trying to not make money. Not long afterwards, it closed down and turned into a Starbucks.

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Are you sure that was the Cushing Square Friendly's?

I worked over on Common Street and I remember when Friendlys closed (it JUST closed) and Starbucks opened in 2001.

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One of the very last Brigham's ice cream shops was a few blocks from there, where Trapelo Road meets Belmont Street. It is now Moozy's Ice Cream.

And a few blocks further east was Rancatore's, which later moved to their current Belmont Center location, and still later opened a second location in Lexington Center.

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There was a Friendly's on Mount Auburn Street in Watertown, about a block or two out of the square, on the right has you head towards Cambridge. It was converted to a Starbucks years and years ago. It may even have been something else before it became Starbucks. The building is still there, still the recognizable Friendly's shape.

There was also a Friendly's in Cushing Square, on Trapelo Road, south side of the street, just west of the square. It too got converted to a Starbucks. That building was demolished recently to make way for the new development going in there.

And yes, there was also a Brigham's just outside Cushing Square, a few blocks east of the square, also on the south side of the street, right at the corner of Belmont Street. That was not a freestanding building; it was part of a block of stores. The last I checked, it was still an ice cream shop, no longer a Brigham's.

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When you come down Common Street to Mt. Auburn to the light with the cemetary on your left there is a domo center in front of you. Was that once a Friendlys or a Brighams?

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I believe he/she is talking about the Friendly's that used to be on Mt Auburn St, just outside Wat Sq.

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Best french fries.

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Whenever Magoo eats at the big F Magoo gets the case of the dribbles down the back side of magoo’s leg of the chocolate variety, if you know what Magoo means. Magoo.

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Can you translate this into English please?

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Magoo gets food poisoning when he eats at Friendly.

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Believe me, you don't want to know.

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Clearly Ron Newman is aware that the joke here (couched in the Magoo shtick) is that Friendly’s gives MisterMagooForYou the runs. Yes, Ron Newman, it is not a funny joke but why pretend you don’t get it? If you want to tell him he sucks, there are infinite ways to do so without pretending to be naive. Sarcasm is always an easy option. A simple, “Yeah bro, you should take this Magoo bit on the road” would do fine.

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The last time I went in, had to literally turn around and leave. It was so disgusting.
I’ve many happy Friendly’s memories.
Their tuna melt was awesome and the Reeses’s peanut butter cup sundae #1. I hope those sundae cups will remain available in supermarkets.

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number of drug deals at the ice cream window of the one in Framingham, I think that legalized pot had something to do with this.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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That could have helped turn them around.

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If we could get the board to approve it, it would be a license to print money.

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You'd probably have to make an appointment to get ice cream. Doesn't seem like a good business plan.

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