Friendly’s has revamped its coffee program with new brewing equipment, higher quality beans and its first line of iced coffee, the family-dining chain said.
The new coffee is made from 100% Arabica beans from Colombia, Brazil and Central America supplied by roaster S&D Coffee & Tea, which also purchased new Bunn carafe brewers for Friendly’s roughly 175 restaurants, according to a Friendly’s representative.
The new iced coffee is available in regular, decaf, French vanilla and hazelnut. Pricing is at the discretion of franchisees, but at a Friendly’s in Springfield, Mass., near the chain’s Wilbraham, Mass. Headquarters, hot coffee is $1.49, unflavored iced coffee is $2.59 and the flavored coffees are $2.89.
“Our consumers spoke and we listened,” Dennis Pfaff, Chief Operating Officer of FIC Restaurants Inc., the franchisor of Friendly’s Restaurants and a subsidiary of Sun Capital Partners Inc., said in a statement. “We absorbed feedback from our guests over the years on our old coffee and are beyond excited to roll out a much-improved coffee program, made with new machines from high quality beans. We look forward to continue improving and evolving with our customers’ changing tastes.”
Friendly’s is just the latest family-dining chain to rework its coffee program as consumer demand for better versions of the beverage has increased.
Denny’s introduced cold brew coffee to its more than 1,600 domestic locations last year, and IHOP upgraded the coffee pots it places on tables at its 1,700 restaurants so they are better insulated and keep the drink hot longer.
Friendly’s has been struggling financially, and in April it closed 23 locations.
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