{"id":7497,"date":"2013-03-15T19:11:48","date_gmt":"2013-03-16T00:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=7497"},"modified":"2014-11-24T23:36:34","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T04:36:34","slug":"tgi-fridays-3400-forest-dr-1024-15-march-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=7497","title":{"rendered":"T.G.I. Friday's, 3400 Forest Drive #1024: 15 March 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As I said in Have Your Say<\/i> the other day: \"This is Huge\".<\/p>\n

It's not just that T.G.I. Friday's<\/i> is closed, but that the knock-on effect for Richland Mall<\/a> will be awful. The biggest shoe still in the air there is Barnes & Noble<\/i>. That chain is undergoing a brutal round of store closures right now, and I already was expecting the Richland Mall<\/i> store to not survive it. That's because Richland Mall<\/i> is clearly a marginal B&N location -- It was never open as late as the bulk of the chain, and then even those hours were cut drastically several years ago. But now, there is another factor in play above and beyond the general woes of the chain and the specific numbers for the Richland Mall<\/i> store. I hope I'm wrong, but even if they had wanted to keep it open before, I think the closing of an adjoining anchor will tip the balance.<\/p>\n

As for the mall itself, this negates all the minor good publicity they've had with their little moves like the Ping Pong Plaza and Sadie's<\/i>. It's hard to see a future for the place as retail with only Belk<\/i> holding down the storefront. I think it would have made a good City Hall for Forest Acres, but that ship just sailed.<\/p>\n

As for Friday's<\/i> itself? Well, I've eaten there a good number of times over the years. We used to go there quite often on weekends and have the Nine Layer Dip, but then they discontinued that for some reason. I recall one time in particular when they brought out the chips for that dip, and someone had sprinkled them with sugar instead of salt -- and this was for all the chips in the restaurant, they couldn't bring us a good batch!<\/p>\n

I also remember they used to have an extremely decadent ice-cream sundae cookie kind of thing, and I had one in celebration the only time I ever sold a story. They discontinued that too..<\/p>\n

I could see the writing on the wall a few years ago. This used to be a reliable place to get a decent burger up until 11pm all during the week, but I stopped by one night to find that they had moved the weekday closing hours up to 10pm. They had also discontinued the really good cheese-patty-on-top-of-a-burger that they had at the time. Hmm, that seems to be a theme here..<\/p>\n

My sister mentioned to me a few weeks ago that she had heard the place was closing, so I made sure to get some nighttime pictures a few days ago, and I was going to drop by this weekend for old times sake and sneak a few inside pictures along with my burger, but that was not to be. Since this was a planned closing, I fully expected that they would go until the end of the month, but maybe they chose a Friday on purpose..<\/p>\n

(Hat tip to my sister.)<\/p>\n

UPDATE 14 November 2014<\/b> -- The place is to become The Seafood Academy Restaurant & Bar<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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UPDATE 25 November 2014<\/b> -- The Seafood Academy<\/i> appears close to opening:<\/p>\n

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