The informal American restaurant chain TGI Fridays Inc., which has been serving customers since the start of the century with happy-hour deals, hamburgers, and comfort-food entrees like cheese sticks and loaded potatoes skins, filed for bankruptcy safety on Saturday, but the company said its restaurants will be open while it is working on a “restructuring process.” The Dallas-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Northern District of Texas to start a “restructuring approach” to ensure the “long-term validity of the brand”, according to a business statement. The move comes as the business struggles with economic issues brought, in part, by the Covid-19 crisis, Rohit Manocha, the senior president of TGI Fridays Inc., said in the speech. The company’s 39 restaurants in the United States that it owns and runs will all be available. The firm said the bankruptcy filing does not include the locations that 56 independent owners own. The company estimated both its assets and its liabilities are between$ 100 million and$ 500 million, according to court filings. TGI Fridays, which stands for Bless God It’s Friday, opened in 1965 in Manhattan. It gained popularity because of its large regions, as well as its happy hours, which provided an atmosphere of romance for single people. The company changed its selection in 2007 and started charging lower prices for smaller portions, which proved popular with consumers. The epidemic, though, proved to be a problem for restaurant chains like TGI Sundays that have massive real estate footsteps. The network has more than 461 franchises in 41 countries. Since the crisis, users ‘ desires have shifted to faster, cheaper food. TGI Fridays Inc. was seeking funding in October to get ready for a possible bankruptcy filing. TGI Fridays, which dropped the comma in its brand in 2013, is personally owned by TriArtisan Capital Advisors, a New York-based private equity firm. An email asking for further comment was not immediately responded to by TriArtisan on Saturday. The restaurant group served as a cultural icon of American casual lunch for a long time. Famous for its brightly colored beverages, TGI Fridays reported that its bars had trained the actor Tom Cruise to make drinks for the 1988 movie” Cocktail.” Additionally, it is credited with spreading the Long Island Iced Tea. Saturdays, as the ring is sometimes called, is not the only informal sit-down restaurant network that has struggled lately. Buca di Beppo, an Italian everyday dinner network with more than 80 locations, numerous in California, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August. According to The Associated Press, Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy in May and renounced Chapter 11 bankruptcy shelter in September.