Friendly’s is a restaurant chain on the United States’ East Coast. Friendly’s was founded in 1935 in Springfield, Massachusetts, by the Blake brothers S. Prestley Blake and Curtis Blake. It has 10,000 employees; George Michel is the CEO. It offers diner-style cuisine and highlights its 22 ice cream flavors; many locations offer an ice-cream only take-out window alongside of the table service option. A total of 137 Friendly’s are spread across Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Vermont.
Friendly’s was founded in 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, by brothers Prestley and Curtis Blake in Springfield, Massachusetts. The Blake brothers opened a small ice cream shop named “Friendly”, selling double-dip cones for 5 cents each. In 1940, a second Friendly in West Springfield was opened with an expanded food menu. During World War II, the Blakes closed the business until the war’s end.
By 1951, 10 Friendlys were operating in Connecticut and western Massachusetts. The expansion of the company led to the move of headquarters from Springfield to Wilbraham in 1960. By 1974 the chain had grown to 500 restaurants in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Midwest. That year, a food processing and distribution plant opened in Troy, Ohio.
In 1979, the Blake brothers retired and sold Friendly to Hershey Foods Corporation, which operated the chain as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1988, Donald N. Smith purchased Friendly from the Hershey corporation, with Friendly becoming part of Tennessee Foods. In 1989, Smith added the ‘s to Friendly, making its colloquial name official.
In 1997, Friendly Ice Cream Corporation debuted on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol FRND. The stock began at $18 per share, peaking at $26. Around then, 34 stores were sold to DavCo Restaurants, which planned 100 openings in the next 10 years. Despite DavCo’s efforts, Friendly’s stock price fell to $5.
Also in 1997, Friendly’s exited the Pittsburgh market after an unsuccessful few-year stint, closing all six restaurants, which were sold and converted to Bob Evans by the spring of 1998.
