The Arkansas Alumni Association mentioned today that the Fayetteville T.G.I. Friday’s location has closed.
A sign posted on the front door of the restaurant confirms the closing of the business and reads:
Restaurant Closed. We apologize for your inconvenience and appreciate your patronage. If you have a gift card, it is valid at any other location, or you may call the following number with questions. 1-800-374-3297 (Option 1).
When we arrived, workers from Ken’s Signs were removing the T.G.I. Friday’s signs from the exterior of the building.
Read it at The Arkansas Alumni Association
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I’ve never been to TGI Friday’s and don’t care that it closed, but I was a little sad to see that Ichiban on Joyce closed last week. The posters on their front windows hint that the staff moved to Shogun; some more info on this would be appreciated.
I’m sure I spent more than $1,000 in Friday’s the past couple of years. Excellent people and service and pretty good food. And one of the few places dependably open late. This is a real loss. Hope all the good folks there land on their feet soon.
Meh. Sucks for those with a financial stake, but I won’t miss it.
Too many places, exactly the same. Every chain serves the same crap on the same plates. I don’t like going there, and not very many people do. Fayetteville is about local business! This is still a small town and we support small town business. We love Ella’s, Bordinos, Theos, Hog Haus, Grubs, Flying Burrito, 36 Club, Cafe Rue Orleans, Greenhouse Grille the list goes on and on. Wal-Mart happened because of our loyalty to local business
Fayetteville is in a constant state of depression.
You know, nothing bugs me more than to hear people say stuff like “good riddance, it won’t be missed, I don’t care, etc etc”. This is the exact sort of attitude that breaks our community down. Believe it or not, chains are a part of America, and that’s not going to change, if you really love Fayetteville, love all of it. Not just the tiny niche you deem as “cool”. That tiny niche can’t support a city of this size. Don’t get me wrong, I love our local businesses and I support them constantly, but I also understand that in a place as big as NWA, we have to have our chains to attract people to the area.
When a place like that leaves, it leaves an enormous real estate crater right in a heart of one of our big money sectors, making it look embarrassing and sloppy. Small businesses can’t afford a space like that and usually can’t afford that sort of volume; larger chains don’t want the space because it’s built to another chain’s building specifications. So we get stuck with an eyesore, al la that giant empty Circuit City building.
I would much rather have a bustling chain business sitting there generating tax revenue for our city than an empty lot that becomes unkempt and a reminder of our tough economy.
@Gleep Glop — Amen. And nice name.
@Gleep Glop – well said…I hope the folks who worked there manage through the Holidays…not the best time to be blindsided by a sudden job loss.
Good riddance TGI Fridays is gone, now if only Olive Garden would follow suit.
Wow. I am pretty surprised by this one…
@Michael–I hope you don’t use the City’s trails, or parks, or recreation services, because if you want all those restaurants to close you can say “bye-bye” to most of the great things our Parks and Rec provides. Remember, 1/2 of the HMR tax that is collected goes to Parks and Rec. And Olive Garden has consistently been the #1 restaurant generator of HMR taxes in this city since it has opened.
Also, it’s a damn shame to see any business close, chain or no chain. People lose jobs, the property seldom reopens any time soon (see Shorty Smalls, Fire Mountain and Smokey Bones for examples), and the City loses revenue to provide the services and amenities we have come to demand.
No, I can’t say ‘good riddance’ and I wish the best to ANY small business here in Fayetteville.
We have a choice in this town whether we support chains, or locals. I choose to support locals.
I don’t “love” TGIFridays or McDonald’s or Olive Garden anymore than I love interstate highways.
We live in a capitalist society. We choose which businesses get our money. Those who don’t get enough money, fail.
Sure, its bad for people who worked there, but it doesn’t bother me a bit.
Losing TGIFriday’s doesn’t impact Fayetteville very much. There are plenty of other restaurants charging the same HMR taxes that people can continue to visit.
If the business was viable, it wouldn’t be closed. I can “root” for every business that opens in this town to succeed. If I don’t go there because its bland, same, nothing special-ness doesn’t appeal to me, I am not helping it succeed.
I’m at peace with that, and I’ll save my disappointment for when a local place with a unique menu and good atmosphere closes.
I’ll go on record as recommending all readers bypass the chains in this town to support our locals. If you want a steak, go to Greenhouse or Doe’s (semi chain, but still greatness and regional and unique) or Herman’s.
If you want a burger, go to Art’s, or Hugos, or UberBurger or Brenda’s. Skip McDonalds and Wendy’s and all that jazz. Yeah they may be owned by local or semi-local people, but they still send a lot of their money out of town, and they add nothing to the uniqueness of this city.
If you want chicken go to Slim’s or Foghorns, or Charlie’s or Mama Dean’s or Wilma’s.
If you want Italian, go to Noodles or Pesto Cafe. Skip Olive Garden. Give THOSE local guys more of your dollars. They pay HMR taxes, too, and they don’t send a huge chunk of their funds to corporate offices located in some other state.
Keep Fayetteville Funky. Send the chains to hell or Springdale.
@FK – Never used the trails, rarely use the parks wouldn’t really miss most of them (honestly it seems if there’s enough room for a picnic table and trashcan an area gets labeled a park in Fayetteville), and don’t make use of the recreation services.
I don’t care if a place is a chain or local if the food is good, and honestly TGI Fridays was mediocre at best and I don’t know if I would say Olive Garden is even that good once price is added to the equation.
Don’t mourn the loss of a chain with so so food; celebrate the many better quality dining options many of which are local/regional in their ownership. Burgerboy listed many such examples above.
Wow, some people just don’t get it…
Wow, such pretentiousness in the comments… I completely agree with gleep glop. I didn’t eat there, but I do hate that it closed. We’re getting too many vacancies in this town and that isn’t what generates tax revenue or gets people coming to our area. I only ate there a couple of times, but it always seemed packed so this comes as quite a surprise… especially before Christmas; don’t they know that side of town is crammed with hungry shoppers this time of year? Why not close down right after Christmas to at least get the holiday revenue and not have to cut jobs at the worst time possible?
Right on, @Me. How the closure of *any* business in this economy benefits our community is incomprehensible. I don’t go to every eatery in the area, but I don’t want to see any of them fail and people lose jobs. Some of those people have a severe case of bah humbuggery.
The bottom line is this. There is a finite amount of discretionary income spent in this town on dining out.
Does anyone really think that because we lost TGIF that there are people who simply won’t go out to eat anymore?
They don’t drive dining out. They benefit from it.
Its not hard to believe that the amount of money people are spending dining out has declined. TGIF closing just proved that they were one of the least attractive options in this town for people to patronize. That’s it. It doesn’t prove anything else.
Sucks for the staff, but on the whole, it means almost nothing.
Has anybody really missed Fuddruckers? Yeah, we used to have a Fuddruckers.
I haven’t missed it once, and I feel the same way about TGIF.
If someone comes in with a better concept, they’ll do well. If not, they’ll fail.
Its not some great symbol of the local economy failing. Its an undifferentiated chain that couldn’t hack it in a very competitive local restaurant scene.
My personal opinion is that Fayetteville is overbuilt for restaurants, particularly in the “Mall area”. All of those chains popped up together within about 2-3 years. Several have failed.
What should concern you is if there are long time businesses closing, not flash-in-the-pan chains that have been around for less than 5 years. Those symbolize poor business decisions and an inability to capture a local following rather than a huge shift in the local economy.
If we start losing established restaurants that have been around and been successful for many years, then its time for concern.
Don’t forget the 2 very best local restaurants on the Square, Petra and Taste of Thai. If more places mentioned on this list put out good creative vegetarian specials I’d go out lots more often.
Comparing local restaurants to chains is like comparing apples to oranges.
@jesse – How so? Do they not both provide the same service? Are they both not in the same market segment of food service/hospitality? Comparing a restaurant (local or national chain) to a home improvement store would be apples to oranges; comparing 2 restaurants unless you break it down to cuisine served is apples to apples.
The two types of businesses are run quite differently (so differently that the restaurant to home improvement analogy is apt) and have very different goals. I speak from experience, having worked in both locally owned and chain restaurants.
. . . saying they are alike because they provide the same service is like saying Britney Spears and Animal Collective are alike because they both make music.
Yeah, locals and chains are different, especially in a place like Fayetteville.
They do provide the same service, so they strive for the same discretionary income.
Chains seem to have always struggled in Fayetteville because we are so loyal to our locals historically.
TGIFriday’s was here for less than four years. That leads me to the conclusion that it was a bad business plan.
Blame it on a bad location, and that the demand wasn’t there in the first place. Maybe opening a restaurant out in a field on the north end in this town isn’t a wise decision. We’ve seen O’Charley’s, then Maux Dad’s, then Fuddruckers, now TGIFriday’s all try this formula and it hasn’t worked.
If a restaurant can’t make it past at least 5 years, which is the typical lease interval, then it was doomed from the start.
I think your typical Fayette-namese doesn’t think about heading north across Fullbright Expressway when he/she thinks about dining out.
Let those empty buildings serve warning to anybody who wants to locate out in sprawl-land. I personally think that if those types of chains would buy up land in mid-town, like the closed Sonic, or the other long defunct fast-food places, they’d have done better. Savor seems to have carved out a nice niche. Herman’s continues to thrive.
Midtown used to be a “drive-by” kind of area where gas-stations and fast food joints only thrived. Now, its more in the heart of the city. Drive-by businesses struggle there because all of the thru-traffic goes out to the bypass. Its time for more casual and sit-down dining along North College Ave. Mermaid’s figured this out. Pesto Cafe remains strong in a very, very subpar location.
I don’t think the problem is access to that “uptown” area as much as it is entrepreneurs ignoring the heart of this city for all that is shiny and new.
Now its all shiny, new and empty.
Midtown locations that would do better than spraw-land restaurants:
The old Bank of America in front of Evelyn Hills. For Sale.
The old Sonic property, which is currently leased by another BBQ place.
The old Long John Silver’s with a defunct cell phone store next door.
The old Mexican Place across from Wendy’s.
The entire old Razorback 6 property. Subdivide and sell lots big enough for sit-down restaurants. Have them share parking.
The closed car dealership at Township and College.
Any and all of these spots would be much more natural locations for the locals to go out to eat than anything around the mall. This allows people to have dinner, a drink, and head downtown to the entertainment district with ease. This area no longer gets “drive-by traffic” but a few fast food joints continue to thrive off of local traffic.
There’s a lot of untapped potential in this stretch of College Avenue. I think for the longest time everybody wanted to keep pushing north.
There should be some deals out there for anyone willing to invest in this area of the city.
Count me as another one who thinks Burgerboy should run for council.
Hello Jerks maybe you should think about all the people who lost there jobs before xmas!!! You are a cold hearted a– !! I hope you loss your job a week before xmas… i wish you the worst!!!
It truly does suck for them, but I suspect there were obvious signs the place was sinking if the employees paid attention. A place doesn’t simply go from viable business Sunday to closing up shop Monday morning.
I do wonder if the timing of the decision was influenced by it being end of semester and students (who I’d suspect made up a large percentage of their staff) leaving town.
Not too at all, the employees at Friday’s did not know what was going on, I have a friend that worked there and knew how it all went down, this was due to someone being greedy and only looking out for one’s self. The owner was behind on the rent and had to make a decision and that decision was to closed. The employees was called in about a meeting have no clue they were going to be let go, once they arrived their 2 weeks pay checks were laid out on the table they didn’t get notice either. I frequent Friday’s quite often, they were open late and I didn’t have to deal with the crazies down on Dickson late night. To be honest I haven’t had the best of luck at the local places around the Ville, it could be many factors that could contribute to this but I tend to have better luck at the chains.
The timing of the closing is sad, not only for the area but also for the emloyees that worked there. So instead of being negative about the situation people, just move on, there is nothing that can be done now, it is what it is.
Burgerboy has good points, the primary one it seems being “survival of the fittest”, which I can’t really argue with. We do live in a capitalist economy and we all vote with our dollars. I don’t agree there is only a finite amount of discretionary income that the establishments have to fight over. Good establishments attract patrons from more than just the immediate area. I know people who come to town just to eat at Hugo’s or Herman’s.
There are many reasons restaurants may close, and it is not simplistic. Having many friends and colleagues in the restaurant, bar and entertainment business in Fayetteville, I know it is a constant struggle to be successful. Knowing how the odds are stacked, I always support (maybe not always patronize) anyone who tries to make a go of it. I applaude anyone who does succeed and feel bad for anyone who doesn’t.
TGIFriday’s, Fudrucker’s and O’Charleys were chains, and they failed. Gullet’s, Railhead and Urban Table were local, and they didn’t make it either. It’s not just about the food, or the service, or the pricing, or the location. It can be any combination of factors, including bad management or ownership or financial decisions that cause a to business fail.
I am constantly amazed and thankful for the variety and quality of dining experiences we do have available to us here.
I know many won’t agree and think the loss of a “chain” restaurant is no big deal, “good riddance” in some people’s thoughts. I say, however, another’s success in this business doesn’t take anything away from any of the rest of us, but the failure of one does diminish us all somewhat.
True, FK, but even if good establishments attract patrons from a larger area, the distance that people (generally) are willing to drive to dine out, and their available income are both finite. :)
Nationwide, statistically speaking, and consistently, MOST businesses that open fail within 3 years.
Most of the people who don’t care about TGIF are saying they personally don’t care because they didn’t dine there. I am included in that bunch. I’m not a heartless POS who wants people to be without income at Christmas.
And rather than view this as some sign about the overall health of the local economy, I prefer to view short-term businesses failing as businesses that were doomed to failure because of poor planning/lack of demand.
AQ hasn’t gone under. Neither has Herman’s. THOSE types of places that have weathered rough patches and managed to stay afloat for a decade or more are the ones that would cause me to be alarmed if they closed.
O’Charley’s/Meaux Dad’s obviously is a location problem.
Fuddruckers/TGIF I believe are a combo of location and poorly differentiated chains that would do fine in a larger, less-locally-centric market. They may have done fine in Fayetteville if they had entered the marketplace ten years later. They all may have done better if they had located more centrally to the local population.
I see those mall-area places packed at lunch, and when there is a ballgame in town.
Downtown/Dickson establishments who signed leases within the past 3 years are paying all-time high rents. I believe part of what we are seeing there is that the margins have reached a breaking point. For some of those buildings to sit vacant for several months would allow a correction in what are now sky-high rents, and hopefully make Dickson Street healthier in the long-run.
Most entertainment districts across the country are equally fickle. You’d be amazed at the turnover even in a place like Sunset in L.A. or Deep Ellum. There are usually something like 25% hardcore, longtime businesses there, with established followings. The rest of the businesss exist on the fringe and struggle to maintain and grow their patrons, and there is a lot of turnover.
As long as people are willing to roll the dice and try new things, this will continue to happen. Risk is inherent in any business venture. Its part of the game.
Finally, Patron restaurant came along and snapped up the Fuddrucker’s. They look busy as bees most of the time I drive by there. Smokey Bones’ location is about to be reincarnated as a local venue.
As for people pissed because they lost their jobs waiting tables: I’ve waited tables in a college town. Most of the people doing that work aren’t in it for the long haul. And, with all due respect, it isn’t exactly quantum engineering or financial management. There are always places hiring waitstaff and cooks. I know you’ll all be fine.
@burgerboy.
Right on. Everything.
Who’s going into the old Smokey Bones?
The Old Smokey Bones is going to be a placed called Northern Exposure.
BREAKING NEWS!!!!
El Chico closed yesterday. We had an El Chico? Yes, it was located along that stretch of Frontage that Panera Bread is on, and Bank of America, in “Uptown”. This kinda blows my “established restaurants aren’t failing theory”. It started as an okay location, but turned into an awful location once the mall area and Millsap opened up. Amazing they stayed there as long as they did. At the time it opened, there weren’t very many local Tex-Mex options. I hadn’t dined there since the late 90s.
Also heard that HogWild Pizzeria in Oak Plaza bit the dust, but cannot confirm.
Midtown, people. Midtown is where good restaurants will thrive.
I saw today where NYC’s iconic Tavern on the Green will close after New Year’s
Eve.
burgerboy – HogWild did close. Quite a while ago. Poor business practices.
Seems like that, and occasional rampant drug use, are the two main contributing factors to most business around the dickson/square area closing.
Yes, Hog Wild closed a long time ago. They have a sign on the door stating they didn’t pay sales tax.
Lets all hope for declining rents so some folks not backed by giant chains can come in and give it a whirl. Franchise restaurants require franchisees to have a certain amount of net worth and liquid assets before being granted the name. Those businesses are more likely to make it past the 3-5 year rent cycle whether they are doing things right or not. Small upstarts usually get going on a shoestring. Greenhouse Grille’s owners probably wouldn’t have been able to make a go of it starting out on Dickson or uptown.
The El Chico location probably won’t be re-used as a restaurant. That would be throwing money down a black hole.
Anybody remember Austin’s, then Shorty Small’s and now its a seasonal Halloween store? That street doesn’t work for restaurants. Panera makes it because they have almost a direct right turn off of North College into their location, as well as great visibility.
Frontage road over there is just too difficult to get in and out of nowadays and there are much better locations nearby. If there was a street coming off the expressway to hook up with Joyce back in that area, that might change.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the roads all get re-aligned in that area, with the “fly-over” and all that being done to relieve the Joyce/College situation. I heard it was on track to start in 2010.
There’s a lot to be said about loyalty with local flavor and it doesn’t always revolve around quality. I’ve eaten at AQ only a handful of times over the course of my 17 years in the area, and each time I have stuff shooting out of one end or the other. Sometimes both. However, I know folks that drive from out of town to eat there because they’ve done it for years and their parents did, etc. Same with Hermans, if that “Go Hogs!” decor and local “who’s who” patrons can support a restaurant that serves pace picante sauce with individual wrapped saltine crackers, more power to it. I won’t frequent the place. I don’t feel it warrants me to wish it out of our town. I think average people need to work into the local flavor, starting with the comfortable chains and branching out, making the local stuff the new comfortable. Sometimes I think some of Fayetteville’s staunch funky supporters forget what it’s like to be in a new area and would be more satisfied eating rocks…as long as they were *local* rocks. I’m all for keeping fayetteville “funky” but I don’t like empty buildings covered in funk either.
There’s a million reasons restaurants fail. One nice thing about chains, is they take some of the hard work out of the equation and puts it to a formula, where many small restaurants just can’t handle all the ins and outs of one of the hardest industries to succeed in.
I’m not a chain lover, but I can’t deny the occasional guilty pleasures of a chick-fil-a sandwich, a Sonic lemon berry slush, french fries from Wing Stop, pretzels at Mellow Mushroom, and several others. You’ll most often find me at one of our many awesome local choices, but as Tim Curry said in Legend, light can’t exist without darkness….so get used to it.