In 1965, TGI Fridays Opened as a Singles Bar Because Its Founder Wanted to Meet Women. Here’s How It Became a Global Fast-Casual Chain
In 1965, TGI Fridays Opened as a Singles Bar Because Its Founder Wanted to Meet Women. Here’s How It Became a Global Fast-Casual Chain
Chiara KimThu, October 15, 2026 at 7:00 PM UTC
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TGI Fridays’ original location in N.Y.C in 1976; a TGI Fridays location in New York in 2024Credit: Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; Steve Pfost/Newsday RM via Getty -
Alan Stillman opened TGI Fridays beside his apartment in 1965, creating a fern-filled space designed to attract singles
The chain claims it created loaded potato skins and maintains an emphasis on bartending and cocktails
After restructuring, TGI Fridays operates nearly 400 restaurants worldwide and plans to open five new New York locations
TGI Fridays has its roots in cocktails.
The fast-casual restaurant chain was opened by Alan Stillman in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York City in 1965 as the first singles bar in the world, per The New Yorker.
Stillman wanted to meet single women and leased the bar next to his apartment, creating the first “fern bar,” a preppy singles bar with domestic details like Tiffany lamps and potted ferns that were the first to market to single women, according to the outlet.
“I lived on 63rd Street between First and York. Easy access to the 59th Street bridge meant you could get out of New York quickly, so in that two or three block neighborhood, there was a pile of airline stewardesses — and for whatever reason, there was also a whole bunch of models,” Stillman said in an interview with New City Reader of the restaurants original location. “Basically, a lot of single people all lived between 60th and 65th and between York Avenue and 3rd Avenue. It seemed to me that the best way to meet girls was to open up a bar.”
Per the TGI Fridays website, Stillman created the restaurant with the motto, “In here, it’s always Friday.”
TGI Fridays opened in N.Y.C.’s Upper West Side in 1965Credit: Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
The spot was “inspired by the Barnum & Bailey Circus” and offered cocktails and “charismatic bartenders,” per the website.
It added that the restaurant was the first to require barricades to manage its guests, which happened starting within the first week of opening due to its popularity.
TheNew Yorker reported that TGI Fridays allowed for co-ed drinking to expand beyond domestic spaces, and the trend spread beyond the Upper East Side bar, with the chain’s second location opening in Memphis, Tenn. in 1967. Per the brand’s website, it launched in the U.K. in 1986.
Part of the Tom Cruise film Cocktail was filmed in the original location, per The Takeout, and the TGI Fridays website says that its bartenders trained Cruise for his cocktail-wielding role.
TGI Fridays offers everything from burgers to wingsCredit: Alamy
The chain still has a focus on cocktails, featuring “expert bartenders,” per its website.
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TGI Fridays set a Guinness World Record in 2011 for the largest simultaneous bar flair routine, with over 100 bartenders doing a routine for two minutes in Covent Garden in London.
TGI Fridays locations today each have a propeller mounted above the bar to symbolize the bar being the driving force for the “TGI Fridays engine.”
The drinks menu features everything from flavored shots to margaritas to signature cocktails, while the chain also offers food items from burgers to wings to loaded potato skins, which it claims to have invented on its website.
“Fridays is a place where people come together to celebrate, for fun and shared experiences,” senior vice president of global marketing Lauren Perez told PEOPLE in an emailed statement. “That energy, the generous hospitality and the sense that everyone belongs is what makes Fridays unlike anywhere else.”
TGI Fridays filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024, finalizing a liquidation plan in 2026 to close the original corporate entity while initiating no further restaurant closures as the chain operates under Sugarloaf Hospitality, per Nation’s Restaurant News.
The outlet reported that over half of the U.S. locations of TGI Fridays closed prior to and during the bankruptcy proceedings.
TGI Fridays currently has nearly 400 restaurants in almost 40 countries.
Per Nation’s Restaurant News, the chain’s 1-2-3 Strategic Vision, unveiled in 2026, established an objective of 1,000 restaurants and $2 billion in revenue by 2030.
Perez added that the chain recently announced five new restaurant openings in New York, the first U.S. development from the company in over 10 years.
“We’re proud of our history and excited for what’s to come as we continue to be the place where the world goes to celebrate,” she said.
on People
Source: “AOL Money”
