TGI Fridays quietly closed its remaining two Houston locations last week without any fanfare. The closures were not unexpected, and HHR postulated that they would eventually occur at the start of this year when TGI Fridays cut its operations from four stores to only two in Houston. The chain, which first entered Houston in 1973, at one point held the majority of the “fern bar” segment, but a lack of updates over the years left Fridays falling behind the competition in a dining segment that has only become more competitive as the amount of business shrinks. TGI Fridays long depended on being “the bar near the mall,” as reinforced by the final two locations being outside Deerbrook and Willowbrook malls. As of this article, five TGI Fridays remain in Texas all within DFW International Airport.
I’m going to miss their 50 cent wings special
“A lack of updates” is right. As someone who likes to go out to eat and drink, I went to Almeda TGI’s during its final days, and it was just a really bad atmosphere. The restaurant was hot, the tables were sticky, and the food was lackluster and expensive. The lack of a jukebox leaves a lot to be desired, with having to bear with commercial pop music the whole stay. (Nobody wants to get crunk to Stitches by Shawn Mendes)
The only saving grace of TGI’s was their decently cheap drinks, which is why my wife forced me to go a few times. I understand TGI is a chain, but that Almeda TGI’s seemed like they just didn’t care about their customers. They didn’t try to keep them around to keep ordering drinks. I feel like they bought this upon themselves. There’s definitely a whole bunch of other places to have fun and eat good around that area for about the same price, places where you would rather hang around and stay a while.