Friendly’s Ice Cream

This location is closed. No great loss.

Been such a long time since I’ve been to a Friendly’s, so we went here after a trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Typical Friendly’s fan fare. The funniest addition is that their sundaes are called Happy Endings. Very embarrassing to ask for one to the waitress at the conclusion of our meals. Anyway, recommended for a nostalgic reasons.

You could say it’s an institution but gosh, it’s changed over the years. It’s survived the good bad and ugly and has slid a ways downhill in the process.
The perfect landing to chow down on a half day from school or to celebrate your town sport’s team’s victory.
The ultimate classic: a fishamajig and a fribble (shake) is now overshadowed by the newcomers on the menu.
You can reminisce of days past filled with chicken finger baskets loaded with shoestring fries and a «cone head» sundae (or a Jim Dandy if you could stomach the five scoops). They still offer it but over the 15 or 20 years I’ve frequented the neighborhood favorite, somehow its lost its charm. Is it inflation or is it just overpriced now? Was it the servers — high school students easily lured from your table when their friends stop in for a few scoops? Or the ice cream counter help, who never failed to ask you multiple times which toppings you wanted? (It was the gummy bears and peanut butter, in case you were wondering)
Many days and nights spent here, consuming many ‘a coffee fribbles, orange sherbet coolers (renamed years ago), fries dipped in honey and scoops covered in whipped cream, cherry on top, no doubt.

This was my Friendly’s for 18 years… it was good, it was bad, they were sometimes on time, they were sometimes really, really late. But you know what, they were there, giving me good ol’ American burger/​ice cream food. Did I always like it? No. But I appreciated its existence.