Live Life With Extra Sprinkles, 'Cause I Wanna Go To Friendly's!

     Hello everyone, and welcome to a new feature here on My Florida Retail! Today I introduce to you "Dining With AFB & Friends". While we've seen some restaurants here on My Florida Retail before, most of the ones covered so far have been abandoned, repurposed, or casually looked at from the outside. While we'll still see plenty of restaurants from those perspectives in the future here on MFR, there are lots of obscure, rare, faltering, or otherwise interesting restaurants that not only would I like to photograph for posterity, but that I'd also like to try the food from too! So that's how Dining with AFB & Friends was born, as myself and the other contributors of the blog (if they ever wish to do something like this) from time to time take you all into the restaurants with us. For our first Dining with AFB & Friends post, we'll stop by a restaurant chain that's made the news this week due to another round of closings being announced...

Friendly's Restaurant #7695

1011 E. Eau Gallie Boulevard, Indian Harbour Beach, FL

     This Friendly's Restaurant opened in 1988, built in the classic Colonial building style of the chain's restaurants in the Northeast at the time (which fit in nicely in New England, but stand out quite a bit here in Florida). Today this Friendly's in Indian Harbour Beach is the last of its kind in Brevard County, as well as one of only three Friendly's Restaurants left in all of Florida (the other two being on International Drive in Orlando and the other in Port St. Lucie).

     "We are open," reads the road sign on this Friendly's Restaurant on the morning of April 11, 2019. Considering how rare an operating Friendly's Restaurant is in Florida these days, in addition to last week's announcement that 23 Friendly's locations in New York and New England would be closing, the employees at this location in Indian Harbour Beach probably want to reassure locals and tourists alike that they aren't seeing things when this Friendly's sign appears on the horizon along Route A1A.

     Friendly's made their way down to Florida sometime in the 1980's I believe, during a time when the company had over 500 locations in the Northeast, Midwest, and Southeastern US and was growing rapidly. Friendly's skipped their way down to Florida like many other companies hoping to find success in the sun, that their legacy in the Northeast would resonate with all the transplanted Northerners now calling Florida home. Friendly's continued to build restaurants in Florida into the 2000's, when the chain began entering its period of decline. It seemed like most major cities in Florida had a Friendly's at one time, so there were a decent number of them down here at one point. While I don't have an exact count of how many Friendly's in total operated in Florida, I can say that Brevard County had either 4 or 5 Friendly's of its own at one time (including the location we'll be seeing today in Indian Harbour Beach, as well as former locations in Melbourne, Melbourne Square Mall, Merritt Island, and possibly one at Searstown Mall in Titusville, however I couldn't confirm if that Titusville one ever opened or not). Taking that into consideration, I'd have to guess there were at least 30-40 Friendly's in Florida at the company's peak. 

     Anyway, while some of these Friendly's locations closed in the early 2000's or even before that, the company expedited closures as the 2010's began, many of these closings triggered by Friendly's bankruptcy in October 2011. Other closure waves trickled out after that, bringing the company to where it is today. While Florida was always an isolated market for Friendly's (the next closest locations appearing in Myrtle Beach, SC), the three random Friendly's left down here after years of shrinking are even more of an anomaly, all clustered in East Central Florida and fairly out of the way from the next closest cluster of Friendly's Restaurants. (Which is a situation that sounds quite similar to one that a certain supermarket chain tried to pull off a few years ago, doesn't it?)

     With news of those recent Friendly's closures floating around, in addition to just recently realizing that out of Friendly's 174 remaining locations, only three of them are in Florida, I made a note in my mind to try to patronize my local Friendly's at some point soon. I figured today would be a good of a day as any to visit Friendly's, especially after browsing their menu online and noticing some $5 weekday breakfast specials that sounded like a good deal. Hungry and ready to go, I took a nice morning ride up A1A for some Friendly's for the first time in many years...

      In addition to the photos I took in April 2019, I also have a few photos I took of this Friendly's location a few years ago. I posted these old photos to flickr, which I believe I left on there when I started to delete content to conform to the new uploading restrictions. Three years ago, instead of a plea that this restaurant was still open, the message on the signboard featured a little play on a famous political slogan going around as the election of 2016 neared.

     Moving away from the road sign, here's our first look at the building itself. This is the classic Friendly's building style, modeled after the Colonial architecture common in the New England area. The entrance into the restaurant is located under the red awning.

     Here's another view of the front of the restaurant. This Friendly's doesn't have any signage whatsoever on the front of the building, opting instead to place signs on each of the sides.

     Turning our attention to the left side of the building, here's one of those signs I mentioned. This particular sign faces Route A1A, as does the main road sign. When I took this photo a few years ago, everything looked good over here...

     ...however, a few hurricanes later, Friendly's has been reduced to nothing more than "riendly" now. The last hurricane to have any impact on this area was Hurricane Irma in 2017, so that's how long this sign has been broken like this. There's also the off chance a passing storm could have done this damage, but it's pretty rare for a passing strong thunderstorm to whip signs around so much to where they begin to fall apart like this.

     Anyway, on this side of the building we also see the now closed off drive-thru window, visible where that brick wall jumps out from the rest of the building. At one time you could order ice cream at that window, but it looks like it's been a long time since that was possible here. I think some Friendly's still offer drive-thru windows according to the website though.

     Moving around to the right side of the building, we see the other sign, which is still fully intact. Those arched windows look into the main dining room, which we'll see in just a moment.

     Here's a look at the front right corner of the building, the main entrance located just behind those bushes and palm trees. This building was looking a bit rough around the edges, not only because of the broken sign on the other side, but also due to the missing brick on this corner of the building. I don't know how that brick went missing, but the wooden framing of the building became exposed when the brick came down. While the outside of the building was looking a bit rough, I discovered looking through county records that Friendly's actually renewed their lease at this location. The original lease on this building expired in 2017 according to records. I couldn't find a copy of the new lease to see how long the term is, but for Friendly's to renew, I guess this place does decent business. Being right across the street from the beach in an area with a decent amount of tourists probably helps this location. Not only that, but ice cream is always nice after a day at the beach 😀

     Stepping inside the restaurant, this is the view we see. Like most Friendly's, to the left when you enter is a small counter where you can order ice cream, and to the right is a cooler with prepackaged cartons of ice cream and ice cream treats for purchase. I didn't get a picture of the counter to the left (as a bunch of waitresses and cooks were hanging out behind it), but it was identical to this one.

     I didn't actually eat my food in the restaurant itself, opting instead to order my food online and pick it up to go. However, as I waited for the cooks to finish preparing my order, I was able to get this picture looking into the dining room. It doesn't look like much has been updated in the dining room since this place opened in 1988, but the building looks much better maintained on the inside than it does from the outside. I personally don't care if the furnishings are old, just as long as they're clean! Friendly's also had all of their Easter decorations out too, some of which you can see up on that shelf along the restaurant's back wall.

     Now that we've seen the restaurant itself, it's time to eat! For my late breakfast today, I ordered the vegetable omelet with home fries and wheat toast. Since Friendly's takes 50% off select breakfast entrees during the week, I got all of this for only $5 plus tax - a great deal I must say. The omelet was very good too. Friendly's didn't skimp on the vegetables in the omelet either, with plenty of mushrooms, peppers, onions, and tomatoes cooked into the egg, as well as garnished with more vegetables on top. It was a very filling breakfast, and well worth $5. One of these days I'll have to try the lunch menu, as there were some good lunch specials I saw online too. I hope the Indian Harbour Beach Friendly's sticks around for a while, as I was quite happy with my breakfast!

     As I said before, the Indian Harbour Beach Friendly's is located directly across the street from the beach. It was a nice day so I hopped across the street to Canova Beach to see what was going on over here, as well as grab a few photos to include with this post.

     With temperatures hitting 90 degrees for the first time in 2019 this week, the beach had a bit of a crowd for a Thursday morning. Come this weekend, there will be people everywhere here!

     So I hope you guys liked this new feature. This isn't going to be a common one (at least from me - I don't know if any of the others will pick up this feature up more often), but I might do a Dining with AFB & Friends every once and a while to keep things interesting.

     Anyway, that's all I have for now. I'm slowly progressing on getting the next portion of the Melbourne Sears closing series ready, so hopefully that will be coming up before too long!

Until the next post,

AFB

Bealls Department Store - Indian Harbour Beach, FL

Bealls Department Store #7

204 E. Eau Gallie Boulevard, Indian Harbour Beach, FL - Indian Harbour Place

     Jammin' out to some Redlight King -- wait, I think I've started a paragraph like this before. Anywho... In the last My Florida Retail post, we took a look at the Publix store in Indian Harbour Place. Now, in this post, we'll be taking a look at the shopping center's other anchor, Bealls Department Store. I'm pretty sure Bealls was an original tenant to this plaza when it was built in 1983, although they have updated their building since then.

     Bealls Florida is a department store chain that operates over 70 department stores throughout Florida, along with operating over 400 Bealls Outlet and Burkes Outlet stores in the Southeast and Southwest US. Bealls Florida shares no relation to the Bealls store owned by Stage. Bealls Department stores carry the typical department store fare (clothing, shoes, home items), however what makes Bealls different from the others is that they carry merchandise unique to the "Florida lifestyle" - meaning a large focus on casual wear, athletic and golfing clothes, and beachy home items among other things. If you want to buy a heavy winter coat, Bealls is probably not a good option for finding that!

     Upon first entering the store, you find the Young Men's and Junior's clothing located between the two sets of entrances, with shoes directly in front of you. Most Bealls stores use the combined drop ceiling/open ceiling effect, which you can see in this photo. This store only had the open ceiling over the Young Men's/Junior's departments, although some Bealls stores also have open ceilings and even skylights over some other departments. This effect also makes for one classy Roses' Discount Store as well! As l_dawg2000 commented, "This is one nice looking store, inside and out!"

     Looking into the Young Men's/Junior's departments, which had that large cylindrical light fixture over it (which looks a lot like a floating lampshade to me).

     Moving away from the front of the store, this photo is looking toward the back of the store from a center aisle. This aisle passes along the edge of Women's clothing and shoes.

     Moving into the back of the store now. This is looking down the main back aisle into the home and housewares departments.

     Another photo of the main back aisle in the home and housewares departments. There is also a small seasonal section back here as well, which you can see in the background of this photo where the Christmas trees are.

     Moving away from the main aisle and into one of the smaller aisles within the home department. Here you can see the "HOME" department sign clearly.

     Looking toward the back wall in the home department here, where the dishes and dinnerware sets were located. You can also see some examples of Bealls' "Florida lifestyle" theme expressed on that shelf of hand towels in the foreground, as there's nothing like a pink flamingo with a Santa hat and and some palm trees to express the true meaning of Florida!

     Another example of "Florida lifestyle" merchandise from the home department, expressed in palm tree and seashell themed bath accessories. As styertowne commented, "I love the wicker tissue holder!! This is definitely where Rose from the Golden Girls shopped!" All that's missing are some flowery pastel towels to go with it!

     Children's and baby clothing take up the rightmost portion of the store, with Girl's clothing in the back right corner and baby clothing in the right center portion. A few of the clothing racks from the men's department are also poking out at the left side of this photo.

     Continuing further along the right side wall (going closer to the front of the store) is the Boy's clothing department. Just beyond that was a small toy section set up for the Christmas season, as well as a small corner for overflow from the Men's department.

     Looking across the front of the store, toward the open ceiling section of the building. This photo does the best job at showing the contrast between the two sections of the store. As styertowne commented, "I really like this ceiling effect. At least it's not the same-old, same-old homogenized stuff you could see anywhere. Kudos to Bealls for doing something different!"

     And finally, the checkout counter. This is the checkout counter located next to the left side entryway (with a similar set-up near the right side entryway).

    With this photo we will conclude our short tour of the Bealls Department Store in Indian Harbour Beach. This will also wrap up our coverage of the Indian Harbour Place shopping center, where previously we looked at the plaza's other anchor, Publix.

Happy that I beat my self-imposed challenge of copying these descriptions over before my Theory of a Deadman song finished playing, and now preparing to enjoy a OneRepublic song, until the next post,

Retail Retell (who, in order to embrace his honorary Floridian status, just placed an order for some of those pink flamingo hand towels and seashell soap dispensers as part of his Spring redecorating)

Publix #1058 - Indian Harbour Beach, FL

Publix #1058

270 E. Eau Gallie Boulevard, Indian Harbour Beach, FL – Indian Harbour Place

     Publix opened this location in 2006 at the site of former Winn-Dixie #2291, an 80’s era Winn-Dixie that relocated down the street to the site of a former Albertsons in the late 90’s. This Publix replaced store #120 across the street at 223 E. Eau Gallie Boulevard, a space now split between a Ross Dress for Less and Office Depot. When Publix moved to this site, they did not reuse the Winn-Dixie building. This building was built new by Publix on top of the old Winn-Dixie and half of the next door former Walgreens. Also to note, Publix bought this entire shopping center back in June 2016.

     @PlazaACME - This store tour is for you! (I remember you've mentioned this store a few times in the past). PlazaACME replied to this shout out as follows: "Thanks! This store was my first/only Publix experience so far. I really liked it."

     In this My Florida Retail post we'll take a look at the Indian Harbour Beach Publix, a busy Publix located about a mile from the beach on the Eau Gallie Causeway, the main retail strip on the beachside. Given this store's location, this store caters to both the beachside locals as well as the many tourists who stay at the nearby hotels. This store is, for the most part, a typical mid-2000's style store in design and layout. However, this store was remodeled again in 2017 into a wannabe 54M prototype store (minus the deluxe elements like expanded prepared foods, specialty cheese counter, and such). I don't have any post remodel photos, as what you'll be seeing in this store tour is how this place looked with the Classy Market 2.5 decor (installed around 2012-ish).

     To reflect on the fact that this Publix is located near the beach, a wave pattern was painted on the decorative awnings that span the front of the building.

     Looking across the store's front walkway in this photo, where some promotional items have been placed. The entrance is located just ahead as well.

     Welcome to Publix! Well, almost. Beginning with the next image we'll actually go through those doors and into the main part of the store, although you can get a sneak peek of the decor through the doors (which, for a refreshing change, is Classy Market 2.5). However, as I said before, that dingy, decrepit (he said facetiously), only 5-year-old decor was replaced in 2017 by the ever remodel happy Publix. Like I've said before, even though Classy Market 2.5 came out around 2011-ish, it's becoming harder to find these days as Publix continues their never-ending remodeling spree.

     When first walking into the store, you are greeted by bins of sale items and the floral department. Beyond all of that is the bakery (seen here), located in the front right corner of the store.

     Here's an interesting Publix relic I spotted in the floral department. This sign is an early 2000's Publix advertisement, probably hanging here since this store first opened in 2006 (although this sign was fairly outdated even in 2006). This sign features the old 90's style Publix Floral department logo, and a mix of Wavy Pastel decor font ("Full Service Floral Department") and Classy Market 1.0 font ("Publix offers a" and "Stop by and meet our designers"). Classy Market 1.0 is the decor package this store opened with. So over a span of 13 years now, this store has sported three different decor packages. Compare that to the many Winn-Dixie stores opened in the mid-1990's still have their original decor 25 years later!

     A zoomed out photo of that old Floral sign. After doing the zoomed in crop of the sign, I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep this photo to post, but I figured I should just include it anyway. As styertowne commented, "It sorta resembles the Winn-Dixie 1990's Marketplace signage (at least with the diamond in the back)" This Publix department-specific logo dates back to the 90's as well, and the floral, bakery, and deli departments all had similar ones with slightly different colors. I don't know if it was designed with the Winn-Dixie diamond logo in mind, but it is similar. The pastel pinks also add to the Winn-Dixie Marketplace vibe.

     Just beyond the bakery and further down the right side wall is the deli counter. Here you can see a decent lunch rush at the Publix deli, with a good number of those people probably waiting to order a famous Publix sub, aka the "Pub sub". Publix's subs have become so popular that those sandwiches have spawned an unofficial Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr accounts, along with #pubsub (the hashtag is actually endorsed by Publix)! I do have to say, Publix does make a good sandwich, and they're big sandwiches too. I really want a Chicken Tender sub now after writing all of this! :)

     A straight on look at the deli counter.

     Looking back into the front right corner of the store, back toward the bakery and floral departments.

     The back right corner of the store is home to the produce department. The side wall opens into a small alcove to allow for more space for produce.

     Looking from produce across the back wall of the store, with the meat department and the seafood counter lying just ahead.

     Moving on from a look across the back of the store to a look across the front of the store now. Off in the distance you can see this store's pharmacy.

     Looking up aisle 3 (international foods and kitchenware) toward the front of the store.

     Looking at the meat department signage from the end of aisle 5. Behind the meat cases is the meat prep area, which is behind that row of windows.

     Aisle 7, which is home to the cereal and coffee, among other things.

     Publix's customer service desk is located in an island near the main entrance. Over the service desk is this large circular sign, which I like the look of. The stores built with the Classy Market 3.0 decor have other circular department signs like this to identify select other departments, and I think it looks nice. Retail Retell agreed in the comments, but Retail Retell doesn't think including that in this post is entirely necessary :P However, AFB disagreed, and decided to keep that sentiment here on the blog anyway.

     Aisle 8, which is home to paper goods and disposable dinnerware. As J. Mc. commented, "The lamps are interesting, a nice upgrade from strips of florescent bulbs." Publix has never been a fan of the long fluorescent strips. When they first started building these open ceiling style stores, these style lights are what they chose. Their more recent stores (as well as remodeled stores) get these flat square shaped lights. J. Mc. further added from his original comment: "[Those new lights are] probably LED, which would lower their energy costs significantly. MSP Airport replaced all the old fluorescent lamps in their parkades with flat LED lights a couple years ago. Not a cheap endeavor but the energy savings add up."

     @Random Retail - Recently I've noticed Publix has begun carrying small Lego sets in their stores that have a small toy section. I thought you'd appreciate seeing this. Random Retail replied to this as follows: "Yes! I do. Thanks for the shoutout! Those sets are only $10 elsewhere and the Tire Escape is $7, so Publix marked them up."

     Since this store is located close to the beach and many beachside hotels, Publix dedicated half of this aisle to souvenirs and beach accessories.

     The frozen foods aisles. That coffin case only runs through the back half of this aisle. Behind me were more upright cases.

     Dairy department signage. Upon first seeing this sign, J. Mc. commented, "Ahh, it's cheese, I thought at first it was a giant goldfish..." However, on a more serious note, The NC Piedmont Database commented, "That dairy signage reminds me of Food Lion's 2004 decor package." That Food Lion decor in question is this one, and the resemblance to Publix's decor is pretty striking! Retail Retell agreed, saying "I can totally see the resemblance!" The NC Piedmont Database went on to add, "They have the same font - that font is Avenir, I think."

     The beer and wine aisle, which is located in the next aisle over from frozen foods.

     The pharmacy counter, which is located in the front left corner of the store. I took this photo from one of the small aisles of health & beauty products that ran perpendicular to the other grocery aisles in the store. As YonWooRetail2 commented, "It's neat how Publix has created their own Pharmacy slogan: "Feeling well, Living better"-That's very catchy. Its sort of like Walgreens' slogan: " At the corner of happy and healthy"."

     The last aisle is aisle 19, which is home to a portion of the dairy department (mostly butter and cheeses), sodas, and cosmetics ("an interesting combination!" as Retail Retell commented). At the end of the aisle you can see the pharmacy box.

     A look across the front end, with the bakery in the background.

     Introduced during the days of Publix's Classy Market 2.0 decor and carried through into Classy Market 2.5 was this neat feature: along the front end (and sometimes in other parts of the store), Publix would put a collage of classic store photos and photos of other Publix memorabilia. Unfortunately, as many stores are getting remodeled, these photos are taken down and more than likely trashed. However, I like how Publix embraced their past by prominently featuring these photos in their stores.

     And I will conclude our tour of the Indian Harbour Beach Publix with this overview of the entire exterior of the store. However, remember how I mentioned that there used to be a Walgreens in this plaza prior to Publix relocating here? Before we finish, let's take a look at what's left of that old Walgreens space:

Walgreens #????

260 E. Eau Gallie Boulevard, Indian Harbour Beach, FL - Indian Harbour Place

     So to wrap up this post, here is a look at the space immediately next door to the Publix building. This Walgreens opened in 1983 with the rest of the plaza. I believe that Walgreens #4815 at 2200 N. Highway A1A (located about 2 miles away) served as the replacement for this store when it opened in 1999. This store sat empty until Publix announced their redevelopment of the next door former Winn-Dixie, at which point half of the old Walgreens space was torn down to make room for the new Publix. The half of the building that remained became home to Pet Supermarket in the late 2000's.

     While I'm finished with the Publix, we're not done looking around Indian Harbour Place. In the next My Florida Retail post, we'll take a quick look at the plaza's other anchor, Florida's very own Bealls Department Store.

So until the next post,

AFB