2020 has not been kind for England, and all around the world. We have seen many companies like Debenhams, John Lewis, Boots, Go Outdoors and many more face job cuts up to thousands with many stores having to be closed permanently in order to survive the new recession and to keep afloat while having to social distance.
Sadly, we have lost many companies on the High Street through these last 4 months. These victims include Beales, Hawkins Bazaar, Laura Ashley, Bright House, Cath Kidston, Oasis, Warehouse, Victoria’s Secret UK and many more.
On a more depressing note, the lockdown has stopped us from eating in restaurants, cafés & pubs; which is understandable due to a lack of social distancing, but it meant that we could not enjoy eating out at our favourite chains and socialise with our friends and catch up with them. As a result, the eatery chains have been hit the most from the recessions and lockdowns; not even furlough schemes from the Chancellor could save many chains closing stores and cutting jobs.
Most restaurants are part of umbrella
corporations, which means that other restaurants linked with each other also
have to face the fate of closures and unemployment. Bella Italia & Café
Rouge are closing down many eateries (Cheltenham are set to lose both
restaurants), Burger King recently announced that they are closing 10% of their
chains, Pret a Manger are planning to cut 1000 jobs and Chiquito have fallen
into hard times too. Out of all of these restaurant chains, one company has
been hit the most, along with its partner Chiquito; with its popularity on a
downward spiral and its future in deep trouble. That restaurant is Frankie
& Benny’s.
First off, we need to look back on its history and how it was at one point one of the most popular restaurants in the UK. Frankie & Benny’s was founded in 1995 in London, under a company named the Restaurant Group; they attempted to bring quality American & Italian food into the UK, like they did with Chiquito in the late 80s. However, in order to bring in more customers and try to variate from other competitors, they decided to come up with a fictional story on how Frankie & Benny’s was formed. The story goes that a man named Frankie Giuliani once left Sicily as the age of 10. He would move with his parents to Little Italy in New York city in the 1920s, where they would open a Restaurant. He would meet up with an American man named Benny; they had both been friends since school and helped each other to make their restaurant a success. They would name it under their first names in 1953. And with that, many people in the UK decided to give Frankie & Benny’s a go.
The chain offered menu with a wide selection of Breakfast, Any-Time and Kid’s meals that were inspired and influenced by American & Italian meals from Chicken to Pasta, Vegan to Meat and Main Courses to Deserts. There was variety, which allowed many people to enjoy the experience and discover new food to try. The music that was played in all locations was music around the 40s & 70s, with many Jazz, Rock ‘n’ Roll and Soul music that came from the USA; this was a clever idea, which gave them a boost in popularity over time.
Frankie & Benny’s would experience a slow start in the late 90s, but saw a rise of success and critical acclaim in the 2000s. At one point, the chain had around 250 locations around the UK, with many London locations being named Garfunkel’s (which originally started in 1979). The public loved its theming, its menu and the experience. The most famous example of this is when someone is having a Birthday Party there, the chain would make it special by having a table reserved, balloons being decorated around it and finally, the cake arrives and the ‘Happy Birthday song’ is played with an orchestral intro to get others to watch the joy of someone celebrating a Birthday, followed up with Cliff Richard’s ‘Congratulations’ playing after.
Kids would even enjoy coming as Frankie & Benny’s would offer children to have their own menu and even little activity bags to keep them entertained until their food came. The mascots included human-like friendly animals consisting of a Dog, Mouse & a Rabbit; which would be themed in many varieties each month, including Secret Agents, Superheroes, Astronauts and many more; keeping children entertained.
During this era, Frankie & Benny’s was at its peak and was enjoying success in the Restaurant industry; claiming many awards for its theme, menu and catering. However, in a turn of unfortunate events, dark times were ahead for the chain.
In 2014, a customer complained about one of the meals they were given. He was given a Crab Dish that contained Surimi (a type of fish paste); it turned out that we was allergic to it and, therefore, complained to the company. This led to the dish being removed from the menu and turned away a few customers. It would be the next year that Frankie & Benny’s was given an assessment when it came to their seafood products in their menu. They were given the lowest rating, a red mark. This meant that their seafood products were deemed unsustainable and deterred many people away from the store, as they would go to eat there for seafood meals such as Shrimp, Prawns and many more. This gave restaurants such as Harry Ramsdens more success as they were more consistent and professional at seafood meals.
Around this time, the kids mascots were ditched and was replaced with a bland looking activity menu, only consisting crosswords, word-searches and spot the difference games; this would be ignored by children as they were most likely going to ask their parents to bring their iPads or their phones for entertainment to play games and go on social media or simply to just talk to their parents for fun.
January 2017 saw a huge overhaul in Frankie & Benny’s theming and design. Gone was the photos of 1940s to 1970s American life and gone was the classical music that gave the restaurants flair and excitement. Now, there was just colours of Italian flags consisting of cartoony humans eating food from the menu. Something was off with its design and many people were missing the old American style.
The music was replaced with modern music that would be randomly selected in a Spotify playlist; it went from Frank Sinatra’s ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ to Mabel’s ‘Don’t Call Me Up’ or Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Someone You Loved’. Notice how the new music doesn’t fit up with what Frankie & Benny’s was supposed to be? That is because not many people (including the new generation) are not keen and interested in themed music.
Out of all of these controversial changes, the overall menu was lacking in substance and would be cooked differently; the food had started to become for fast food-ish for a restaurant that was once in quality. Even the pizza was becoming more oily and some food was forgetting the flavour.
Therefore, many people were quitting Frankie & Benny's and simple going somewhere else to eat; even having takeaways at home.
One of the most humorous and also weirdest controversy was
when its Warrington Chain served a 4 year old an alcoholic drink, Frankie &
Benny’s would apologise later and described the incident as a ‘Genuine human
error’. With all these changes that made the chain suffer and go through
turmoil by trying to achieve its popularity again led to Frankie & Bennie’s
inevitable and gradual demise.
The final nails in the Coffin are set to be hammered throughout this year, because on the 3rd of June, the chain announced that they could no longer keep their staff paid through furlough and would thus have to close over 120 locations; nearly half of its stores would be closed forever through the final phase of the UK’s 3 month lockdown through a company voluntary agreement (CVA). As a result, up to 3,000 jobs were lost and Frankie & Benny’s are on the verge of disappearing from the face of the British restaurant scene. They have just entered it’s 25th anniversary too, making it even more saddening for the chain’s future. Thankfully, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
The 4th of July saw the announcement of reopening restaurants and cafes, only if they can keep social distancing. Even if stores have closed, Frankie & Benny’s can still survive by welcoming back many customers and also keep many jobs alive. They even started doing deliveries for people who want to eat at home via Just Eat & Deliveroo, with a limited menu for both at locations and delivery.
Even though over 100 locations have closed, Frankie & Benny’s can continue to provide their menu and food to those who are lucky to still have their locations open in order to fight the recession and respectively keep social distancing by enjoying the taste of Italian food at the chain that helped make it popular in the first place.
Overall, Frankie & Benny’s have had an enjoyable ride of success and have uncomfortably fallen down with popularity and its menus. From it’s successful theming to losing touch with most of the general public, Frankie & Benny’s will still be popular and widely known to the whole of the United Kingdom for its success of American & Italian food and helping many people to enjoy the scents and taste of new dishes to come back to anytime and anywhere.
Even though the
lockdown had
nearly defeated the company, Frankie & Benny’s may one day
recover from its fall and thus experience another golden era. Who knows? Have a
visit and see for yourselves, you might find yourself enjoying the experience.
Just don’t forget to thank the men that started it all. Frankie & Benny.
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