What Happened To This New England Restaurant Chain Made Famous For Its Ice Cream?

Once upon a time, much like the famous Dunkin', there was a second restaurant chain that captured the hearts and minds of millions of New Englanders. That chain, which began life as Friendly and would later change its name to Friendly's, took the East Coast by storm with its immensely popular ice cream and comforting, diner-style menu. It maintained a stranglehold on the tastebuds of the Northeast for decades, a distinct accomplishment given the idiosyncrasies of New England's tastes.

But things haven't turned out so great for the once-illustrious fast-casual chain. A combination of bad management decisions, changing tastes, and plain old bad luck has caused Friendly's to sink both in its reputation and in its market share across the U.S. and even in its northern stronghold. So what happened? What caused a restaurant so well-intentioned about being welcoming it's named "Friendly's" to be dismissed by the populace as a whole? And could it still enact a true comeback in the modern culinary landscape?

During the height of the Great Depression of 1935, brothers Prestley and Curtis Blake had a vision for a little ice cream shop. Technically, their mother had pushed the brothers, who were barely in their 20s and struggling to find steady employment, to explore the then-new freezer technologies. But they followed through. 

With a loan from their parents, the Blakes opened their first shop in Springfield, Massachusetts, selling two scoops for $0.05; at the time, this was half the price of their competitors. They chose the name deliberately to be comforting and community-oriented. Unsurprisingly, they took off almost instantly, becoming popular enough that they could open the second location of their "Friendly" ice cream shop by 1940. The Blake brothers used the opening to also debut their first hot food item, the classic hamburger, which transformed the ice cream shop into a more diner-like restaurant.

By 1951, there were 10 locations. What started as a humble family business quickly became something much larger.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Blake brothers continued to expand their burgeoning business into a miniature empire across their native Massachusetts and the rest of New England. By the franchise chain's peak in the 1980s, there were 850 locations in 15 states. The combination of classic comfort foods and a staggeringly large ice cream menu combined to make Friendly a hit with families. Friendly ice cream was so popular that it began to offer take-home half-gallons of its flavors, a first for New England.

The chain further expanded into supermarkets, selling its ice cream by the gallon and as ice cream cakes. The food menu continued to grow, as well, and in 1980 it even became the Guinness World Record holder for largest sundae ever made.

Yet what had begun as a family business was beginning to cause tensions in the family. And the seeds of what happened to the franchise would begin to sprout.

By the time the chain had achieved its greatest successes, the Blake brothers were no longer in charge of the restaurant they had created and built. In fact, the brothers had become bitterly divided over the direction of the company. According to at least one source, Curtis had become president of Friendly via coin toss. This probably didn't help with the tensions between them in the long term.

The Blake brothers' strife seems to have at least partially motivated them to sell the franchise to Hershey's in 1979 for $164 million. Yes, Friendly reached its pinnacle on the back of Reese's Pieces (and strong corporate management from Hershey's). The Blake brothers would remain shareholders in the company they had led for over four decades. And while Hershey's would help Friendly continue its dominance in New England and beyond for close to a decade, it would also launch a pattern that would contribute to Friendly losing much of what had made it great in the first place.

All things fade over time. Friendly, which by the 1990s had officially become Friendly's, proves that with its own more recent history. By the late 1980s, Hershey's had already sold the franchise to a group of investors just as the culinary landscape began to shift under the chain's feet. The casual dining scene was becoming more competitive, while simultaneously, customers began seeking healthier fare from their restaurants. This was far from Friendly's specialties of ice cream, burgers, and other traditional diner classics.

The constant changing of owners, which had seemed like a strength earlier in the chain's life, began to reveal a significant problem: New owners bring their own vision to the restaurant, and those visions often clashed with the identity of the original franchise. Some of these radical departures and shifts began to affect the menu and the service of the once-beloved New England chain. Loyal customers began to feel alienated.

The financial picture began to look pretty bleak around the early 2000s, and allegedly only in part because of the restaurant failing to attract customers. In 2003, Presley Blake sued the company for misusing funds and over the direction of the restaurant he ran for decades. The lawsuit was rendered moot in 2007 due to yet another ownership change, but it turned out to be a sign of things to come.

In 2011, the company filed for bankruptcy, citing increases in dairy product prices (specifically cream), higher than fair rents, and general economic malaise. Several store closures were soon to follow, with its native Massachusetts suffering the most as the company looked to cut unprofitable branches. But the company was able to secure new funding almost immediately and began restructuring; Friendly's prominence in the retail ice cream market, providing products to thousands of stores, might have contributed to its survival.

In 2012, Massachusetts native and Friendly's fan John Maguire took over as CEO of the New England chain and attempted to bring the company back to full profitability. This involved a mass turnover of waitstaff (many of whom had acquired a reputation for not living up to the company's name), a return to the classic diner-style food rather than misplaced dishes like fajitas, and renovating the remaining restaurant locations to freshen up its appearance.

And for a while, it looked like it was working. Maguire even managed to win over both Blake brothers, having lunch with them regularly and referring to them as mentors. In 2013, the company broke another Guinness World Record by hosting the largest ice cream party with 794 attendees (including a nearly-centenarian Prestley Blake). It looked for all the world like Friendly's could get its act back together and regain its prestige in New England... right up until 2020.

To say the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the restaurant business would be to undersell the situation. According to the National Restaurant Association, 100,000 restaurants closed in six months directly because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Friendly's, which was still feeling the aftereffects of its bankruptcy, did not fold... but certainly didn't walk away unscathed.

In the wake of the lockdowns, Friendly's filed for bankruptcy a second time in 2020. It changed hands once again, and with that came a new CEO and more closings. Currently, Friendly's has 150 locations across New England. Certainly, that's no small number, but it's nowhere near the prominence it once possessed. You can still find Friendly's ice cream in numerous supermarkets in New England, and the Jonas Brothers actually partnered with the brand recently to create three limited-run flavors. Friendly's future remains murky, but it continues to foster nostalgia among its native customers and adjust to a rapidly changing culinary landscape.