• by Erin Everhart , Yesterday

Every restaurant has a personality. Some are loud, some are cozy, some you only visit at 2 a.m.

Throughout college, I waited tables at Napolatano’s, a family-owned Italian restaurant that was a Gainesville, Florida staple. We had all the traditional Italian fare — pastas, pizzas, garlic bread — but we also had your traditional college town fare, and that was late-night karaoke.

On those nights, I'd leave the restaurant at 2 a.m., tired, annoyed and slightly deaf from the off-key renditions of "Before He Cheats." Above all, though, I was starving, for anything other than Italian food.

So my coworkers and I went to TGI Fridays. Was it the most happening spot in Gainesville? No. But the food was good, the beer was cold, and it got the job done. It was where we went to wind down and be waited on for a change.

Both of those restaurants have since closed in Gainesville, but the memories stuck. That’s the thing about restaurants. We don't always remember the menu, but we remember how the place made us feel. A lot of casual dining restaurants forgot that. Brands tried to be everything to everyone and ended up being nothing to no one. The category is at a crossroads: adapt or die.

TGI Fridays is choosing to adapt, and they're doing it by getting their personality back. They’re rebuilding their social presence and giving the brand something it hasn’t had in years: a sense of humor. They've rebuilt their app around the three things guests actually want, and they're rebuilding loyalty around the data they already have so it feels personal instead of promotional.

It's a brand trying to have a voice again. With attitude. With opinions. Snarky, sometimes spicy, and a little nonchalant about the whole thing. Because when your guests have a high BS meter, the only way past it is to actually mean what you say.

Personality isn't a nice-to-have in the brand guidelines. It's the reason someone picks you at 2am. We sat down with Director of Digital Marketing Christopher Houston to hear how TGI Fridays is getting theirs back.

Listen to the full episode here.

You can also catch Christopher present at our Brand Insider Summit: QSR next month in Santa Barbara.