RIP TGI Friday's (Orland, London: home, buying, living)

[rjca]

Yeah, we white people suck. We are so stupid and we have been around too long. Please get rid of us as we are a burden on modern day culture.

Anyway, I live in So Cal, chains are a way of life around here. I have access to every drive-thru known to man where I am. McDonalds, Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, BK, KFC, Arby's, Carl's Jr, etc. That's how we eat. I'm sure you could count TGI Friday's as in that league. When I was in SF I was wondering how you guys survive without Drive Thru's, and was wondering if there actually are any in SF. What do you do when you want horrible cheap food at 12am? Walk somewhere?

Mom & Pops are more expensive, and their service takes longer. But the flip side is, they usually have a superior product. Mom & Pop restaurants usually have better food. Just more $$$. Although places like TGI Fridays and Denny's are known to take a lot of your money and not give you much in return.

But I really don't care about chains. One closes down, there's 3 million still left open somewhere in the country. But I'm white, so predictably that's how I think.

[skywalker400]

^ I only ever went to TGIF when I lived in SoCal, it was alright, I think they had the Jack Daniels BBQ menu which was decent. I grew up on chains and fast food and eat it more often than I care to admit. I guess I just have acquired different tastes over the years and I can actually digest things like Taco Bell, lol. I really like Outback too (Blooming Onions!) and drive up to Pinole maybe every other month to go there. For the record, I promise I dont weigh 300 pounds too.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Not out of business nation wide, but at least in most of the 415 (south of GG for sure), all of the 650 and perhaps all of the 408, it's kaput. Another American old time favorite dies, in my part of the world.

Also noting that the last Black Angus on the Peninsula (Foster City) is also kaput.

The one in Union City is still there, according to the locator....

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

In fact it was Brinker passing away that got me thinking about this. I sort of knew all the Bay Area carpetbagger communists and haute cusine snobs would be all over this thread ragging on both TGI and BA. I realize those were not actually Brinker operations but certainly of the same genre. For me wife and I (note - my wife is a durned furiner - but one who loves America and at least certain aspects of American fly over culture) these mid end chains of the Brinkeresque genre have a niche. We don't go to them all the time, but there are times when we yearn for it. Yet another aspect of our lifestyle falling by the way side.

I think this is a very interesting thread, 20 years from now someone will list many of these chains under the Nostalga thread. Do you remember when? The same as our grandkids telling their kids about things like cigarettes for one and ash trays or book matches. All these things will be in the past eventually. I remember the big chain when I was a teen ager: Bob's Bigboy, now how many of them do you see?

Nita

[grapico]

GOOD! tgif is a nasty chain w/ premade food out of a box...they should keep those things to airports and interstate stops. If I want food like this I'll go to a grocery store and buy a frozen dinner. I hope the one in river north Chicago shuts down and replaced by something that is palatable and not created in a corporate board room.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by clongirl

Well, I think you might need to realize that the Bay Area is full of "foodies". My husband and I happen to be this way because we have spent a good part of our lives eating good food (we were lucky to be so blessed in SF). It's a San Francisco/Bay Area thing...it's serious business and part of who we are, and a huge part of why we love the Bay Area.

We certainly didn't grow up this way (he from Ireland, the land of boiled, blandness and no choice, but from the land) Once you graduate your way up over time, then ordinary food (especially a chain) will never be acceptable again. It's like eating a HoHo then discovering the authentic French bakery down the street. You will never go back to eating HoHo's...especially when you read the ingredients list with disgust when you discover what's in them.

It's not a "snobby" or "elitist" thing to us or anything..we just love to eat excellent food (it doesn't have to even be pricey but of good quality)..it's our entertainment since we don't spend money on movies.

If I have a burger, you learn that places like Applebee's or Chili's get their meat from inhumane sources where one burger contains the bits from a thousand cows from feed lots all over the country and given nasty feed and treated horribly...gross for people that actually care about what goes into their bodies. French fries from these places contain some freaky chemical so they last longer and can't decompose..

Anyway, I'm sorry to seem so disagreeable, but your opinion on chains when you've been living in the land of chains and fat people don't really apply or have any significance to the people that live in a food/health oriented place like SF/Bay Area...

So I'm perfectly fine and happy with these nasty places closing their doors forever where quantity and profit rule and pre-diabetics chow down because it's affordable.

All of these places are disgusting..and I'm not talking about the taste.

wow, I think you totally mis-understood what I was saying: I am a foodie as well, I am a blue ribbon cook (hate to brag) would rather have a good meal and a good glass of wine than almost anything. We lived in the bay area for 5 years and visit every year. I was simply mentioning if I had my choice of chains, I would opt for one over the other, not that I eat at them all the time. In fact I rarely do, maybe 2 or 3 times a year. Now, if we had InandOut that might be different.

Oh, and one more thing, I will add, obviously you have spent very little time in NWA, which by the way is filled with people from California, because had you spent much time here you would know we have mostly privately owned restaurants and small chain ones, we do have the larger chains, but not in the same number as in cities throughout the country.

Anyway, I will repeat, you did totally misunderstand my comments.

Nita

[grapico]

Originally Posted by nmnita

wow, I think you totally mis-understood what I was saying: I am a foodie as well, I am a blue ribbon cook (hate to brag) would rather have a good meal and a good glass of wine than almost anything. We lived in the bay area for 5 years and visit every year. I was simply mentioning if I had my choice of chains, I would opt for one over the other, not that I eat at them all the time. In fact I rarely do, maybe 2 or 3 times a year. Now, if we had InandOut that might be different.

Oh, and one more thing, I will add, obviously you have spent very little time in NWA, which by the way is filled with people from California, because had you spent much time here you would know we have mostly privately owned restaurants and small chain ones, we do have the larger chains, but not in the same number as in cities throughout the country.

Anyway, I will repeat, you did totally misunderstand my comments.

Nita

good post... to me there is a difference between having a few regional locations that are sustainable and the family can run...and having a massive company that is ran like IBM spitting out food on all 50 states. My main concerns in this is the actual food quality.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by bayarea-girl

Nita, I disagree with you too. Sure INnOut started out as American but like most chains developed corporate structure, forgot about their customers, and quality control in order to cut cost and increase their profits. When new developments go up, developers are not interested in renting to the Mom & Pop business owner they will take the bigger guy any day of the week. The new shinny building always affects rents in the surrounding area too. There were a lot of quality restaurants that have gone out of business because of this. Also, I only brought up the American comment in response what Bayareahillbilly communicated.

Why would anyone want to eat processed foods? All of the chains need to go out of business.

My mother always cooked and if we wanted fries from Mac Donalds or even their burger my mother cooked for us instead. Just like the previous posters. Going out for my family was truly a rare treat. I am so grateful that I wasn't feed the garbage so I could get use to that crap or think that it was normal in any way.

I love food and love to go out and eat but I can't pay for crap. It hurts my stomach to do so. Quality food is worth spending the money on. You couldn't pay me to eat at most of the chain restaurants.

Guess what? I do all my own canning, in fact will start this seasons in about a week. I do buy canned beets, tuna and occassional soup, but very little else. We eat almost no canned food period, but what we eat I do can. I was raised in a home where we too had home made fries and I still fix them (not often) we eat nothing but grain breads although I hate spending $3 to $4 for a loaf. We rarely eat out, when we do I too want quality. In fact the family makes fun of me for being so picky. That being said, I still am normal, I like to grab an unheathly meal once in awile, be it Chili's, Maracroni Grill, or TGIF.

As for InandOut, they still follow the original guide lines, everything is fresh and made daily from the buns to the burger patties. Will this change now that the grandkids have taken over? Only time will tell. And no, I do not think chain restaurants should be shut down, they have been part of our country for generations, probably going back to the depression, certainly the second world war.

Nita

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by grapico

good post... to me there is a difference between having a few regional locations that are sustainable and the family can run...and having a massive company that is ran like IBM spitting out food on all 50 states. My main concerns in this is the actual food quality.

I agree about quality, but most of us do not eat nothing but the best all the time. As for TGIF in airports, I am glad they are there. It is better than a 4 hour flight with nothing to eat, I also think the food is awful for the most part. We ate at one at DFW a couple of months ago when we flew to Ca for our annual 2 week trip. I had breakfast, don't remember what it was, it wasn't worth remembering, still better than eating nothing.

[grapico]

Originally Posted by nmnita

I agree about quality, but most of us do not eat nothing but the best all the time. As for TGIF in airports, I am glad they are there. It is better than a 4 hour flight with nothing to eat, I also think the food is awful for the most part. We ate at one at DFW a couple of months ago when we flew to Ca for our annual 2 week trip. I had breakfast, don't remember what it was, it wasn't worth remembering, still better than eating nothing.

Yeah, they have their places where they are usable. If you are traveling you want to know what you are going to get, you know a certain quality of service, clean rest rooms, etc. And they provide that kind of quality control. What I don't like is them populating down town centers, local communities, etc. with huge marketing budgets, very skeptical lease agreements, or when people just choose to eat there when there are much better options (local family owned restaurants/pot lucks/dinner with family, etc) People raving about how good or authentic they are also irks me. Just went to Macaroni Grill a few days ago (not by choice) 3 people... everything we ordered was bad...tasted like muellers spaghetti and ragu old world style, no flavor, old unfresh basil, shrimp were obviously pre frozen and overcooked, substituted ham pieces for prosciutto, no sun dried tomatoes or capers on one dish(even though listed), mozarella...not sure how they call that grainy stuff mozarella...walnuts on a salad tasted rancid, calamari was not fresh, tasted rubbery and insanely overly salted.just overall a really bad experience and remember why I don't like to spend my money on those establishments. The bread was good though and our waiter was nice and brought us another dish on the house b/c the calamari was literally THAT bad, I imagine the last crumbled pieces out of a big frozen bag. Should have gone to olive garden, at least it would have been cheaper.