D.C. No Longer Boasts a TGI Fridays

D.C. has just lost an important icon: TGI Fridays. The bastion of weekend vibes and whiskey-glazed meats has shuttered its Foggy Bottom location, reports Washingtonian.

The closure, though it comes with few concrete details, is not exactly a surprise. Washingtonian recently visited the top three worst-rated restaurants on Yelp in D.C., and TGI Fridays was identified as the lowest rated — 1.5 stars, ouch. The magazine’s reviewer hated it so much, calling out “the smell of plastic vinyl and wet rags welcomes me” and really, it all goes downhill from there.

That said, it turns out that George Washington University students — current and former — are legitimately mourning the closure. Students said that the restaurant was “notoriously lax” about checking IDs for their insanely strong drinks, and the bottomless appetizer specials proved to be easy on the undergrad-student wallet.

A former GWU undergrad — and current Washingtonian staff writer — summed it up as thus:

If you wanted to have a time when you could drink with no judgment and totally unwind from the craziness that was happening around you and feel a bit safe, you would go to TGI Fridays

Ah, the memories.

Happily for some (though honestly, who?), there is still a TGI Fridays within the area, though not in D.C. proper. For a taste of this underwhelming chain, one must travel to Virginia or Maryland.