Friday!

Actually, not that one.

One of the trustees in the bankruptcy case of Texas-based restaurant chain TGI Fridays has filed a lawsuit against multiple executives and companies, accusing them of running the once mighty business into the ground.

Mighty?

Actually, I do think this is an interesting article.

Stephanie Wickouski, the creditor trustee of the TGIF Creditor Trust, filed the lawsuit on Oct. 30 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, located in Dallas. In Wickouski’s 105-page complaint, she names nine individuals and eight companies.

…

According to the complaint, Wickouski accused the defendants of weakening TGI Fridays by saddling it with debt and asset sales during their acquisition of the restaurant chain, and of benefiting themselves at the expense of the overall brand. All of this together, Wickouski alleges, led to the restaurant chain’s termination as a franchise-system manager. As a result, she claimed the company lost a critical source of income, thus losing its ability to manage its own debt and torpedoing a merger with UK-based hospitality company Hostmore.
“The financial demise of TGI Fridays, Inc. (“TGIF”) is the result of rampant self-dealing and gross mismanagement, enabled by complicit directors and officers and facilitated by its private equity sponsor, TriArtisan,” the complaint read in part. “Ultimately, TGIF’s creditors were left holding the bag.”

I’d argue that the financial demise of TGI Fridays, Inc. was because it just wasn’t that good, especially towards the end. I think the last time I went to one was with my mother on a Sunday afternoon.

Do any old time Austin people remember the TGI Fridays in the hotel at Congress and 1st Street? (I think that hotel was a Radisson at the time.) Rumor had it that the TGI Fridays was a favored pick-up spot for singles back in the day. The Austin Memories Facebook page has an entry on the Fridays, but I don’t see any mention of the swinging singles scene.