Friendly’s has applied for a beer and wine license at its Chicopee restaurant on Memorial Drive. The liquor license application filed Feb. 2 came with plans to renovate the location with large windows. The City Council will vote on the liquor license Feb. 28.
The application seems part of an effort by the family-friendly chain to reinvent itself after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Jan. 9. Friendly resurfaced after its corporate owners, Sun Capital Partners LLC, repurchased the iconic brand for $122.6 million, and in the process wiped away $297 million in debt and closed more than 100 locations, nine of them in the Springfield area.
The sales price was about a third of the $337.2 million owners Sun Capital paid for Friendly’s in 2007.
