During the 1970s, brothers Makis and Chris Havadjias worked in restaurants to earn money for college. They helped the owners of one of those restaurants rebuild the establishment, and later bought it. With the experience they gained at that first restaurant, the brothers bought a poorly performing restaurant in Perris, California, that they built into [...]

In Springfield, Massachusetts at the height of the Great Depression in 1935, 20 year-old Prestley Blake and his 18 year-old brother Curtis opened an ice cream shop called Friendly that served double-dip cones for 5 cents. The brothers opened a second shop five years later in West Springfield, Massachusetts and added food to the menu. [...]