Did you know that the first one (in Manhattan) was a trend-setting "single's bar"? The idea was to make the setting friendly and "fun" for office drones (especially girl secretaries) to mingle, have a burger and several drinks, and then stumble back to someone's apartment.
From Wikipedia:The Friday's restaurant chain was founded in 1965 in New York City, featuring standard American cuisine, bar food and alcoholic beverages. The restaurant was located at the corner of 63rd Street and First Avenue. The exterior featured a red-and-white striped awning and blue paint, and the interior included wooden floors, Bentwood chairs and striped tablecloths; the bar area added brass rails and stained glass. The employees were young and wore wacky uniforms, and every time someone had a birthday, the entire restaurant crew came around with a cake and sang Friday's traditional birthday song. The location is now a British pub called "Baker Street"; the brass rails are still there.
I remember being surprised reading a reference to the bar in a novel I read from that era--but I can't remember if it was in The Love Machine or Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York. Or both!
Additional details here--though I wrote this post before reading this, F.Y.I. (Friday's).
