TGI Fridays Big AF Burgers

[Alpha8472]

The company has introduced a Big AF menu where you have a huge knife stuck in a burger. They include 6 ounce beef patties topped with appetizers and a double portion of fries.

What has happened to this chain? They used to be popular years ago, but they have dwindled in recent history.

I don't see this menu as particularly huge with regard to portions. I have heard that the prices are outrageous these days.

I think this place used to be popular when office employees went out to eat. Office gatherings are rare now due to work from home.

https://www.brandeating.com/2023/04/tgi ... rgers.html

[veteran+]

The company has introduced a Big AF menu where you have a huge knife stuck in a burger. They include 6 ounce beef patties topped with appetizers and a double portion of fries.

What has happened to this chain? They used to be popular years ago, but they have dwindled in recent history.

I don't see this menu as particularly huge with regard to portions. I have heard that the prices are outrageous these days.

I think this place used to be popular when office employees went out to eat. Office gatherings are rare now due to work from home.

https://www.brandeating.com/2023/04/tgi ... rgers.html

What does the AF stand for?

[Alpha8472]

Kids are going to ask the waiters what it stands for.

[pseudo3d]

TGI Friday's as a chain has been dying out well before COVID. About 10 locations (plus five more airport locations) exist in Texas and it has less than 300 locations stateside. They are vanishingly rare on the West Coast with an exception of the greater Los Angeles area.

[Romr123]

They were part of the "fern bar" genre--Houlihans (higher end IMHO), Houstons (ditto), TGIF, Chilis (low end), Ruby Tuesday, Red Robin, Applebees, etc etc etc. They're pretty much all fading.

Houlihans did have a terrific salad dressing years ago(they called it Country Club (Plaza) French--red french with crumbled blue cheese). They were started by Michigan State Hotel and Restaurant grads.

[jamcool]

There is Cheddar’s-which is owned by Darden-which is a more modern version of the TGIFs/Red Robins/etc. They seem to be having success.

[Brian Lutz]

As far as I know there haven't been any TGI Friday's locations in Washington since 2009, and I think Chili's was down to one location in Sea-Tac Airport a year or two before that (Their store locator currently shows their only Washington location to be in Spokane, although I'm not sure if that was around before or opened after that.) Red Robin seems to be the dominant restaurant in this genre in Washington, but Applebee's seems to do reasonably well there too (or at least they maintain their store count.)

[Super S]

As far as I know there haven't been any TGI Friday's locations in Washington since 2009, and I think Chili's was down to one location in Sea-Tac Airport a year or two before that (Their store locator currently shows their only Washington location to be in Spokane, although I'm not sure if that was around before or opened after that.) Red Robin seems to be the dominant restaurant in this genre in Washington, but Applebee's seems to do reasonably well there too (or at least they maintain their store count.)

TGI Friday's had a location in Vancouver, plus several around the Portland area. If I remember right, they all shut down around the same time. They did seem pricey at times but generally had good service. Food was ok. Not really sure if it was a franchise issue or something else behind the closures.

[babs]

As far as I know there haven't been any TGI Friday's locations in Washington since 2009, and I think Chili's was down to one location in Sea-Tac Airport a year or two before that (Their store locator currently shows their only Washington location to be in Spokane, although I'm not sure if that was around before or opened after that.) Red Robin seems to be the dominant restaurant in this genre in Washington, but Applebee's seems to do reasonably well there too (or at least they maintain their store count.)

TGI Friday's had a location in Vancouver, plus several around the Portland area. If I remember right, they all shut down around the same time. They did seem pricey at times but generally had good service. Food was ok. Not really sure if it was a franchise issue or something else behind the closures.

The master franchiser for TGI in the west went belly up. I think everything from Sacramento north closed.

[storewanderer]

TGI Friday's lost its lease in Reno many years ago. It was always a busy restaurant. I didn't care for it. I did think it was better than Chili's. Then again I also thought Carrows was better than Chili's. TGI was replaced by something called Cheeseburger Island Style, some chain with locations in Hawaii, but having its corporate office in Portola, CA, so they decided to open this Reno location. The theme of Cheeseburger was pleasing, but they ran it like a tourist trap restaurant and it tanked hard. The building eventually converted to a drug testing facility.

These burgers look terrible. For starters, you cannot get your mouth around them. They are too big. Also, sticking a knife in the middle of the burger... I have seen this before... this is stupid because it causes the burger to start falling apart as you get into the middle. And as far as a double portion of fries goes, this, again, is stupid. The burger is too big. Too many fries on the plate. This causes food to get cold before someone can consume it entirely. This stuff most likely does not taste very good cold, either the burger or the fries.