Binge Watching and Bar Origins: Applebee’s Secret History

Binge watching. I do it a lot. Because of the hours that I'm awake on the weekends (generally up by 4), I like to have some shows recorded that I can watch. Seeing 7 or 8 episodes of a show back to back makes me feel like I've gotten caught up on what's going on with the storylines and characters.

One series that I've gotten to like is The Industries/Foods/Boozes that Built America.

This weekend, they featured the history of the development of restaurants like Chili's, Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday, and T.G.I. Friday's.

These days, these restaurants are focused on feeding families. But that's not how they started.

Get our free mobile app

Back in the early 1970s, there were 800,000 single women living on the Upper East Side of New York City. So the original T.G.I. Friday's wasn't focused on family dining. It was actually a singles bar. It featured cheaper drinks for women. Many of those drinks were fancier, more colorful, and had more alcohol in them.

They also featured fancier foods and hors d'oeuvres that you couldn't get anywhere else.

As more places copied this format, T.G.I. Friday's became less and less a singles bar and more family-friendly.

When you look at the walls at Famous Dave's or Applebee's and see all of the random memorabilia hanging there, know that it all started at T.G.I. Friday's. That was just part of the model that others followed.

So next time you're out with the kids at Applebee's, just imagine that you're sitting in what was supposed to be a singles bar.