Friendly’s Restaurant Files for Bankruptcy, Expect Many More

Friendly’s Restaurants LLC, an iconic chain on the East Coast of the U.S. known for its sundaes, became the latest dining institution to go bankrupt amid the pandemic.

The pandemic and lockdown have dragged down sales at restaurants around the world, and led many already-struggling eateries to buckle under debt loads. Pizza Hut franchisee’s NPC International Inc., the holding company of Chuck E. Cheese CEC Entertainment Inc. and the U.S. arm of Le Pain Quotidien have sought bankruptcy protection since the Covid-19 crisis started.

This isn’t the brand’s first brush with bankruptcy. In 2011, Friendly Ice Cream Corp. and its subsi