Dedham TGI Friday's has closed

Don't break your cheekbones from grinning so hard thinking your wit is funny.

I was reading some stuff about Howard Johnson's Restaurant and why they slowly closed. Yes alot had to do with Marriott's mismanagement but more so.. the chain had just gone stale.

By the mid 1980s, America's taste for food had changed, and Howard Johnsons didn't keep up with the times and had a stale menu.

Friendly's could also say this has happened to them. (or even the Ground Round)

Let's face it, you didn't go to either place for 'healthy' clean eating. Much of it is grilled or fried foods.

Same is happening with these 'fast casual' chains today and ironically it was these chains that replaced Howard Johnson's. These chains filled a void in the 1980s, grew in the 1990s.. and now are starting to deflate because people's tastes have changed and their menu has not.

People just do not go to these places anymore unless its the only game in town. Here in Boston, we have lots of choice, so no surprise.

It just happens in this business. People's tastes change. I mean.. anyone old enough to remember eating at a Waldorf System or an Automat ? Neither one exists today, although I am surprised the Automat hasn't made a come back with todays 'self service' model.

Most of these restaurants are in places that are only accessible by car for most people, and most people know that they shouldn't have more than one drink if they are driving. That limits how much they serve and cuts profits.

A second factor: these places are often located near places like office park zones. Remote work means people don't go out in large groups for happy hour or social events like they used to. Also cuts the lunch crowd considerably.

Add in all the people shopping online because malls suck and I can see why these places are dropping out in a suburban box zone. Massachusetts also has plenty of home grown places that fill this niche with better food and better tap lists.

...at how few people realize that no actual cooking takes place in these "restaurants". It's all removing food-like items from packaging, throwing them in either the microwave or the fryolator, plating them and dumping sugary sauces on top.

Everything at Friday's is (was) straight out of the freezer. Agreed. Bertucci's stuff is mainly made fresh. I'd even say that the majority of Uno's food is freshly made.

finding a solid dining out experience for a family of 5 (with 2 alcoholic drinks for 2 adults) is almost impossible to find for under $100.

Relative to what people earn, this was always the case. I grew up in a family of 7 (5 kids), and there was never any expectation that we would have a "solid dining out experience" on anything like a regular basis. It was an occasional-to-rare treat.

"Family Style Dining"

That is what made Howard Johnson's so popular. It was family friend fare at cheap prices.

Later Applebee's and TGIFridays filled the gap.

Even for me in my poor 20s, I ate alot of Applebees in Malden because it was nearby, you could smoke inside (hey this was a bonus!), and a table of four adults could eat there for

Fewer and fewer places are filling that "family style' dining. Yes Applebees and TGIF fill the gap but they really are geared toward adults, not kids. Vs Howard Johnsons and Big Boy (Abdow's) had a special kids menu that had a variety of things. It was geared toward the kids.

And of course it was reasonably priced. We're just seeing less and less of this style place these days.

But that could be more of a rent issue.

I dunno maybe the place has become just too saturated. But you are correct that the staffing and wait times at the TJIF there have been kinda crappy.

I lived at the WaHo at the end of my street when I lived in Atlanta. I could not get enough of it

But I am not so sure that Waffle House would do well in the Northeast, outside of nostalgia.

Boston, and lesser, New England as a whole is very health conscious when it comes to food and where we eat. Its why many chains struggle here because alot of it is just isn't that healthy. Waffle House exists in places where local food is deep fried anything with a side of velveeta and gravy.

I mean look at this way. We *had* 24hr breakfast places for decades, they just all closed up. Bickford's, IHOP, to name a few. And independant ones don't last long as a 24hr establishment. Add our crappy blue laws that many towns won't allow 24hr service. There just isn't a market for them up here.

You could argue and say that the few places that are open after 1am are busy would dictate a need. But I think the costs to run such a business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week would outweigh the income earned by being open during slow times, especially on the overnight during the week.

Then of course, you're faced with competition from other nearby Waffle Houses. Remember where they have stores, they are EVERYWHERE. Often two on either side of a highway exit all the way up and down the highway.

And.. AND Fwiw.. Not all Waffle Houses are 24hours. If you have two near each other, only one will stay open and the other will close at 11pm.

(awaits the influx of replies...)