TGI Fridays, toiling in bankruptcy and dealing with a steady pace of closures, perhaps has a simple solution for all of its ills: Better food.
On Tuesday, TGI Fridays is rolling out a revamped menu at its US restaurants which includes more mozzarella sticks options, upgraded steaks and chicken, a new signature sauce as well as a visually appealing cocktail list to appeal to the TikTok generation.
A new menu is the first step CEO Ray Blanchette is making to revitalize the 60-year-old chain, which has all but diminished into irrelevancy under its former private equity owner who took the flavor out of TGI Fridays.
“We’ve touched 85% of the menu, including improving the quality and cooking methods as well as getting back to hand-breading (chicken fingers) and doing things that we’ve always been known for, like hand-cutting steaks,” he told CNN.
Blanchette had served as TGI Friday’s CEO for five years until May 2023, before returning in January. He immediately took on the Herculean task of helping to usher the iconic business out of Chapter 11, which it hopes to complete this summer, and return it to growth. TGI Fridays has 85 US locations remaining — a far cry from the 600 it had at its peak in 2008.
Adding to the challenge, the casual dining sector is struggling, with many chains (barring one notable exception) reporting slumping sales as customers pull back their spending amid economic uncertainty — making a TGI Fridays relaunch even more difficult.
Part of the reason for slumping sales is that heritage chains haven’t innovated enough compared to their quick service competitors, according to Maeve Webster, president of consulting firm Menu Matters.
“When times were good before the pandemic, they got a bit lazy with the way they were thinking about their concept, their position in the marketplace and the idea that consumers would always go,” she told CNN.
“After the pandemic, that put a lie to that idea. Now suddenly they found themselves having to really re-think what their position was in the marketplace, layered on top of that all of the challenges that are facing restaurants in general with labor, supply chain and increased costs.”
Back to basics
Within his first 100 days on the job, Blanchette wanted to make “no regrets moves” with the menu. That meant leaning into what its fans are familiar with — notably appetizers, meats and cocktails — plus hopefully attracting Gen Z eaters that crave different flavors.
“We approached it from the standpoint of let’s make sure everything we have on our menu is something we’re proud to serve,” he said. “If it’s not and if we’re not proud to serve it, either delete it or improve it.”
A hallmark of the menu is a new “TGI Sauce,” which the chain calls the “flavor anchor we’ve been missing.” It’s described as a “craveable, all-purpose sauce built to elevate fries, burgers, and hand-breaded chicken.”
TGI Fridays is also expanding its mozzarella sticks sauce selection, which is the “most-Googled item associated” with the chain, to include Frank’s RedHot Buffalo, garlic parmesan and whiskey-glaze options; improving its tater tots and introducing a new “Big Queso Energy Burger,” a Southwestern-inspired cheeseburger.
Chicken is getting an upgrade, with the chain now buying better-quality poultry and hand-tossing the coating of fried chicken at the restaurants. Steaks, too, are now being cut in-house. Blanchette also teased that pot stickers are returning to its Thai Chicken Salad.
“We’re going back to be more distinctive,” he said. “We knew one of the broad-based assumptions that Fridays is known for bold innovation, interesting presentations of the food and proper cooking … we knew we wouldn’t regret going back to really pure and true cooking methods.”
But TGI Fridays could get too bold, like with sushi, an offering added during Covid-19 to make use of its empty dining rooms and was sold via delivery under a virtual brand. That’s gone, with Blanchette admitting it was “easy to move away from.”
Steakhouse Meatballs, an appetizer topped with a garlic and herb chimichurri sauce and served with tortilla chips, plus Truffle Tot-Chos, both got the axe, too.
The changes are more “new-ish” rather than a total makeover, in Webster’s opinion.
TGI Fridays is “revamping some of the stuff that’s already been there, which is not bad — people like mozzarella sticks and there’s nothing wrong with them — but I’m not sure that that addresses some of the more critical issues that might be facing them,” she said.
Cocktail callbacks
It’s not only the food that’s changing, so are the drinks. After all, TGI Fridays got its start in 1965 in Manhattan as a place for singles to meet each other. It was one of the first major chains to popularize the “happy hour” concept.
Blanchette is changing the drinks menu to reflect the classics TGI Fridays served in years past, like when he was a manager and then in other leadership roles from 1989 to 2007. The chain used to display seven goblets at its bars, each representing its signature cocktails that are now being modernized into “Power Pours.”
The drink list includes a “Jack’s New Fashioned,” a fresh take on a Jack Daniel’s whiskey cocktail that switches out the orange for a black cherry; a new Long Island iced tea called the “The eLITe” that mixes vodka, gin, rum, an orange liqueur, lemonade and a splash of Coca-Cola. There’s also a stronger “Strawberry Henny,” which has Hennessy V.S. cognac, a splash of Grand Marnier, and fresh strawberry purée topped with a sliced strawberry.
Blanchette has seen in their tests that “people are drinking less cocktails, but they’re drinking more premium cocktails,” especially younger consumers. When they do indulge, he added, “there’s a need to focus on handcrafted, fresh ingredients built right in front of them.”
All the drinks have a “high visual appeal,” the company said, likely in hopes of imitating the success other chains have seen with colorful cocktails that have gone viral on social media. This month, Chili’s rolled out a ’90s-inspired color-changing margarita.
For Webster, leaning too much into trends isn’t a panacea for the difficulties casual dining chains are facing and TGI Fridays is “going to find that that’s probably not going to be the answer to their problems.”
However, a reinvention for TGI Fridays isn’t “impossible,” she said referencing how Chili’s is “killing it” again.
“Our industry needs some wins and I’d like to see some of these heritage brands reclaim the things that made them unique,” she said.
