T.G.I. FRiDAY’S Official Times Square page. On March 15, 1965 casual dining got a serious kick start. That’s when a fun-loving New Yorker named Alan Stillman purchased a bar located on 1st Avenue and 63rd Street and named it T.G.I. Friday’s … Thank God It’s Friday’s. Okay, so his main goal was to meet stewardesses, but what he didn’t know at the time was that he was going to create what is now referred to as the casual dining industry.