Well, crap! There goes the lunch trade ...

From The Globe Democrat:

Owner of 5 local TGI Friday's files for bankruptcy protection

On the morning of Saturday, June 12, Steve Bell, President of Chesterfield-based Tricorp management company, which owns five local TGI Friday's restaurants, had a closed meeting with the employees of the Friday's Creve Couer location to clear the recent talks of bankruptcy. Employees who attended the meeting did not want to give specific details of what was discussed and said they'd been advised in the meeting not to speak with any media.

A source close to Tricorp corporate offices, who wished to remain anonymous, tells Globe-Democrat.com that the troubles began when TGI Friday's began requiring franchises to remodel their restaurants. Documents in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Eastern Missouri confirm this, stating that the remodeling expenses came at the same time revenue at its restaurants started to drop and the economy declined.