Friendly's declares bankruptcy, closing 63 restaurants

[NewJeffCT]

A staple of the Northeast since they were founded during the Great Depression, troubled restaurant chain Friendly's has declared bankruptcy and is closing 63 of their 425 restaurants.
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If you grew up in Massachusetts, it’s where you went for an after-school Fribble or where your doting grandparents took you for lunch. The big red signs off the highways were a signal you were home, and the cramped booths at your neighborhood outpost were a familiar place to linger over a Conehead Sundae.

Haute cuisine it was not. And in an era of increasing foodie-ism, it didn’t stray far from the old favorites. But Friendly’s restaurants were part of the fabric of many Bay State residents’ lives.

So a lot of people are sharing memories today after the announcement by the Wilbraham-based Friendly Ice Cream Corp. that it was closing 63 of its nearly 500 locations as it looks to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Approximately 30 of the stores are in Massachusetts, including stores in Acton, Attleboro, Dedham, Leominster, Needham, Quincy, Stoughton, and Worcester. (See the full list of restaurant closings here

http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/10/friendly-closings-come-with-liberal-helping-memories/cZlO2dD6EB8g6ktUXkHYXM/index.html

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