Friendly’s, the ice-cream-and-burger chain founded in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1935, has shrunk to just 87 locations across 11 Eastern states, down from a peak of roughly 850. Massachusetts alone still has 22 Friendly’s restaurants, about a quarter of what’s left, according to a report by The Takeout.
The chain was started by brothers Prestley Blake, then 20, and Curtis Blake, then 18, who sold double-dip ice cream cones for a nickel at the height of the Great Depression. They added a second location in 1940 and began serving food, including hamburgers, one of the first menu items beyond ice cream.
Growth followed steadily in the decades after. By 1951 there were 10 Friendly restaurants in Massachusetts and Connecticut. By 1974 that number had reached 500 across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The company set a Guinness World Record in 1980 for the largest ice cream sundae ever made, and added the apostrophe to become “Friendly’s” in 1989.
Ownership changed hands more than once. Hershey’s bought the chain from the Blake brothers in 1979 and sold it nine years later to Tennessee Restaurant Company. By the mid-1990s, Friendly’s had grown to about 850 restaurants. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and again in November 2020.
Then-CEO George Michel said in a 2020 news release that the chain had been making progress before the pandemic hit.
“Over the last two years, Friendly’s has made important strides toward reinvigorating our beloved brand in the face of shifting demographics, increased competition and rising costs. Unfortunately, like many restaurant businesses, our progress was suddenly interrupted by the catastrophic impact of COVID, which caused a decline in revenue as dine-in operations ceased for months and re-opened with limited capacity.”
In 2021, Amici Partners Group, LLC acquired Friendly’s, describing itself at the time as “dedicated to reinvigorating” what was then a 130-store chain. Today about 90% of Friendly’s restaurants have closed since its peak.
Barbara E. Kahn, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, told Fox News Digital that some Friendly’s locations came to be seen as outdated and slow to keep pace with dining trends. Even so, she believes the brand still has room to grow.
“It has a legacy that could be built on and could serve to bring people in, especially on this trend of nostalgia, which can be a plus in restaurants. But it also has to keep up with changing times and changing tastes.”
Kahn said the chain’s nostalgic appeal and strong ties to ice cream give it what she called “positive DNA” to work with, provided it also modernizes its menu.
“People who remember that brand from its heyday think of it as a fun place to go, a family restaurant known for its ice cream and fun food.”
She pointed to McDonald’s as an example of a legacy chain that has kept its appeal by adjusting its menu and following trends over time. Kahn suggested Friendly’s could attract new customers by adding more non-meat options, healthy grains and salads.
Friendly’s marked its 90th year in business in 2025. Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to the company for comment.
