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Friendly's discovers customers don't like sitting around all day
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Wow, fast food at Friendly's?!
Instead of opening a new place, why don't they just do something about the existing stores that would somehow allow them to serve food at the same speed as a "normal" restaurant?
After a few experiences trying to flag down my server for a drink refill before they had even bothered to come back to take a food order, I stopped bothering to go there any more...
How many stores are opening?
I thought Friendly's was going under? They closed the in West Roxbury a few years ago that was there for more then 30yrs. The place was always busy. plus it was the only ice cream shop in West Roxbury at the time after Yoohoo"s (Brighams ice cream ) closed!!
I have waited longer at
I have waited longer at other restaurants but got better results. Considering the caliber of food one gets at Friendly's I would expect faster service. After all the food they toss out at you is not really even a better caliber then Kelly's Roast Beef with the main difference being that in Friendly's you have an actual server where at Kelly's you get your own food. The food is very similar in most cases and yet Kelly's seems capable of doing it in 5 minutes per customer (10 minutes if its something exotic)where as Friendly's sloths around at a much slower pace. Kelly's also seems to handle way more customers, I have never seen a full Friendly's they always seem sad, dismal and empty.
Friendlies is cooked fresh
Friendlies is cooked fresh to order, they take your order, and cook up your food.
Kelly's Roast Beef is prepared beforehand, dogs and fries are cooked/cooking as you order, ect.
How long does it take to cook up a burger or scoop ice cream?
You'd be hard pressed to find a more perfect demographic area for a Friendly's than West Roxbury: Tons of families with lots of kids.
And yet the Friendly's closed (which led to Skara Grill, so, yay). I'm convinced it's because people could no longer get a table because all the seats were taken up by the skeletons of other people who died waiting for their Fribble. Snails moved faster. The Friendly's in Dedham isn't much better, although it's worth the wait just to look at all of the photos of giant ice cream cones laying in wait to ambush unsuspecting tourists in Maine coastal towns.
It's possible for Friendly's to do fast food fast: We once went to a Friendly's outside Rochester, N.Y. - on a July Fourth, no less, where there was a large crowd (rain forced the cancellation of the fireworks and there wasn't much else to do in the town) that the staff got seated and served quickly. Maybe upstate New York has a better breed of Friendly's?
I worked at Kelly's on Rt1
I worked at Kelly's on Rt1 Saugus in high school and recall that while there was massive prep work beforehand most of the cooking started right after the order was placed. Sure during the busy times the staples were always being cooked but that is only because so many people were ordering at the same time. I never saw fries or other food hanging out in a bin for more then a few minutes (unlike McDonalds where they could be there for much longer.) They had an efficient system in place to handle the crush of people that would pour in all weekend. I doubt all that much has changed in the past decade.
I should also note that while it was not my favorite place to work, I spent 6 months there, they were very nice. All employee's got a turkey for thanksgiving and the facility was the cleanest place I have ever worked.
Ah, Friendlys....
Ah, Friendlys, where they pioneered thick-bottomed sunday dishes where onw could marvel at how the dishes were designed to hold less ice cream and still look large.
How lovely it was to sit down for supper or dessert amidst the dirty, unbussed tables waiting for the tired, short staffed waitress to take your order before your long wait.
Small wonder that the chain had to really consolidate their holdings. Like the Friendlys in Rochester, A few years ago, I was in the Friendlys in Bennington, VT which actually had enough staff and was reasonably clean, but they still had the thick-bottomed sunday dishes.