How Casual Chain Restaurants Traded Their Kitschy Decorative Flair For a More Neutral Palette

Reporter Phil Edwards explained how casual chain restaurants such as Chili's, TGI Fridays, and Applebee's were direct descendants of decorative fern bars from the 1970s. These bars offered a relaxed atmosphere where people could enjoy cocktails surrounded by Tiffany Lamps and various historical wall hangings. In fact, TGI Fridays started out as a fern bar on the Upper East Side of New York City.

When smoky 1950s dive bars met the sleek mid?century styling of Howard Johnson's, baby boomers staged a design rebellion. They raided 1890s nostalgia, stuffed chain restaurants like TGI Fridays, Chili's, and Applebee's with Tiffany lamps, brass horns, and fern?draped windows, turning singles bars into riotous fern bars."

During the 1990s, these chains often had kitschy art on the walls and fake Tiffany lamps. However, as they moved into the 2010s, each of these restaurants gave up their flair for a nice, neutral palette of beige due to changing customer tastes.

Millennials rip out the flair, repaint everything beige, and leave us wondering why chain restaurants got so boring. From restaurant design trends and cultural nostalgia to the economics of branding, I track how family dining went from cluttered personality to minimalist monotony-and what we lose when we erase that soul. Di