TGI Fridays has signed its first U.S. development agreement in more than ten years, handing franchisee Bliss Bites LLC control of one of two remaining Long Island locations along with a commitment to open five additional restaurants across New York State.

The deal is the third development agreement the casual-dining chain has announced in the past month, following plans to enter the Balkans region for the first time and an expansion agreement covering Pakistan. All three fit into the turnaround plan CEO Ray Blanchette laid out this past January, which targets more than $2 billion in annual revenue and 1,000 open restaurants by 2030.

"Growth only matters when it's built with the right partners, and this five-restaurant development agreement is exactly what we envisioned for our '1-2-3 Strategic Vision,'" COO Ashley Kirkley said in a statement. "Guests are increasingly looking for casual dining that delivers real value without sacrificing experience, and Fridays is well positioned to meet that demand as we grow. New York is an important part of our domestic growth story."

A domestic rebuild from a small base

The scale of the challenge is stark. At its peak, TGI Fridays operated more than 600 restaurants in the United States. Today the domestic count stands at 69 locations — fewer than one-quarter of the nearly 400 restaurants the brand runs across almost 40 countries.

The New York agreement carries symbolic weight for the chain. Fridays opened as a singles bar on Manhattan's Upper East Side in 1965, and the company now begins its U.S. expansion push in its founding market two years after emerging from bankruptcy.

Most of the recent growth has come through international franchising rather than domestic company-owned expansion. Since January, TGI Fridays has added more than 150 restaurants to its portfolio, with development agreements concentrated in Kenya, the Maldives, Peru, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Greece, Cyprus and Spain.

The franchise-heavy model shifts capital requirements to local operators while letting the brand rebuild unit counts quickly — a common play for casual-dining chains working through post-bankruptcy turnarounds, where franchise royalties provide revenue without the occupancy, labor and cost-of-goods burden of company-operated stores.

Timing a value-focused comeback

The domestic push lands in a difficult operating environment for chain restaurants broadly. Technomic's Top 500 data shows chain restaurant sales slowed again in 2025 as consumers pulled back on dining out, with growth concentrated in coffee, beverages and snacks and chicken rather than full-service casual dining.

Kirkley's framing — casual dining that "delivers real value without sacrificing experience" — signals how Fridays intends to position its menu and pricing against that backdrop. For a chain competing in a segment where traffic has softened, value perception on the menu is the lever that franchisees like Bliss Bites will depend on to make new units pencil out.

What to watch

The five-restaurant New York commitment gives Fridays a measurable domestic benchmark for the first time in a decade. Execution will matter: the chain needs its remaining 69 U.S. locations and new franchise units to hit sales levels that justify further development agreements if the 1,000-restaurant, $2 billion-revenue target for 2030 is to stay within reach.

With 150-plus restaurants added internationally since January, the growth engine so far has been almost entirely franchise-driven. Whether U.S. franchisees follow Bliss Bites' lead and commit to multi-unit builds will determine if the domestic side of the 2030 vision gains traction.