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Bickfords
I know the one in Braintree went out a while back, the whole chain is really mediocre if you ask me. I've had decent meals there, but never anything great.
I still miss Bickford's in
I still miss Bickford's in Dedham, which turned into a Krispy Kreme and is now a closed
Krispy Kreme.Me too
The food wasn't gourmet, but, once you were seated, it was fast and nowhere near as greasy as IHOP and it was THE place to go on New Year's Day.
Somerville Bickford's now a Brazilian restaurant "Bread & Co."
branching out from their original location in Everett.
Aren't they all closing?
While their store locator would suggest otherwise -- it lists 10 restaurants in Massachusetts -- all the ones I know of on that list are gone now (Somerville, Framingham, Dorchester, Woburn), and there used to be a lot more that aren't even listed anymore (Braintree, Hanover, etc).
Clearly, their web department was the first to go before the actual restaurants followed.
But are there even any Bickford's stores left? They still seem to have an office on Soldiers Field Road in Brighton -- or at least, the sign is still there -- but it seems like they've been winding down for a couple of years now at least.
bickfords has left the building
bickfords in waltham on main street. gone. also gone is waltham ford which is/was right next door.
bickfords on rte 1 in sharon. gone. this has become boston's wicked bistro which did wickedly bad business and has been closed all winter.
mcdonalds pancakes suck.
Didn't the whole company
Didn't the whole company shit the bed? If not, that's on the way, that's for sure.
Happened a while ago, actually
It happened when Bickford's decided to rebrand themselves as "Bickford's Grille" with the stupid E on the end of the name and everything. That was in 2003, I think. Giving up the 24-hour schedule also sunk 'em. I remember the first time I went over to the Woburn Bickford's late at night and found that they were closing for the evening. What the hell, people? Bickford's isn't supposed to close!
I mean, you went to Bickie's because it was late, or maybe it was after church on a Sunday morning, or maybe you were drunk, or elderly, or you just wanted some goddamn pancakes or some goddamn coffee. Or any combination of the above, honestly. But you didn't go because you wanted an "upscale" dinner experience with Black Angus beef and stuff.
Bickford's shot themselves in the foot by abandoning the core group of people who made up their customer base. "Breakfast Anytime!" became "Breakfast Anytime (But Honestly We'd Like To Forget That.)"
And no way would the Bickford's Grille ever run a commercial like the A IS FUH APPUL, B IS FUH BICKFUDS commercial. That is either a good or a bad thing, but I haven't decided.
Right, but are you sure about the chronology there?
Maybe I'm misremembering the chronology in the swirling mists of time, but I thought that Bickford's was already on a downward slope before they tried rebranding themselves, which just had the effect of driving away the last few customers from the handful of stores that hadn't gone out of business yet by then.
And, yes, from the experience of me & anyone else I can think of, they had exactly two branches of their clientele: [1] people coming in for breakfast after church, and [b] people coming in late at night after everything else had closed.
I don't know of anyone that went there because they actually liked the food, and when they tried to re-position themselves as the kind of restaurant where people would go for food they actually like, people just continued going to those other restaurants they [sometimes inexplicably] actually like, like TGI Friday's or Chili's. But now their most faithful customers were cut loose too, so that was the end of that.