Shropshire's first TGI Friday's opens in Telford - with video
It might have been a Monday, but hungry diners got that Friday feeling at the opening of a new restaurant.
More than 500 people turned out for the opening of Shropshire's first TGI Friday's.
Take a peak at the new restaurant here:
More than 30 of the American restaurant chain's team members welcomed their first guests at midday yesterday, with bosses saying that Southwater in Telford is a "perfect fit" for them.
Kirsty Clarke, director of operations, said they were very excited to finally be open.
"It's the first Fridays in Shropshire – the nearest is Walsall, which is only 18 months old," she said. "It's nice to be branching out into the Midlands more.
"Telford has got everything we're looking for. It's got a nice feel of community, as well as a core shopping centre that attracts a lot of the sort of clients we're looking for.
"There's also the Telford Tigers and the International Centre, so there's a lot going on. It fits perfectly."
As well as taking out the flagship unit of the newly finished Southern Quarter at Southwater, the restaurant has created 80 new jobs.
Kirsty said they had hired enough to deal with the volume of sales the company is expecting.
"We generally lose a small percentage in the first few months, but that's how many we look to open with," she said.
"We were expecting to serve 500 to 600 people on our first day, which is quite high. With it being a bank holiday it's a big number, but it's what some of our bigger stores are doing anyway. We want to open and feel like a fully functioning Fridays.
"With it being the kids' holidays, it's inevitable that we're going to have a very busy week. But generally we'd expect to be very busy for the first month or so."
It's been a busy few weeks for the new team members, who marked their grand opening with some celebratory chanting to buoy them up for the difficult day ahead.
"It's incredible – they met two and a half weeks ago, but they build rapport so quickly," Kirsty said.
"We do a lot of team building and chants, but the team members have come together very quickly which is brilliant."
