/startuppedia/media/media_files/2025/10/06/friendly-2025-10-06-15-34-35.png)
Amol Kohli, owner Friendly's restaurant in Philadelphia
In 2003, a restless 2nd year student named Amol Kohli entered a Friendly's restaurant in Philadelphia in search for a job for some quick pocket money.
He was 15, making $5 an hour, working shifts as a waiter, dishwasher, cook, busser, and ice cream scooper. He had no concept at the time that this first job would alter the course of his life.
Through college at Drexel University, studying finance and marketing, Amol returned to Friendly's each summer. While other students were competing for internships at banks, he was learning the backroom of restaurant business: insurance, payroll, food cost, and the day-to-day operations of a business.
"I began helping a couple of franchisees," he remembers, "and I just kept learning what comes after the money gets into the register."
By 2011, with a degree and honors, Amol had to make a decision: enter a secure finance career or risk the restaurant chain he had spent his life with.
Picked the restaurant life over a finance career
He opted for the latter, working as a regional manager.
As per a report by The Hindustan Times, shortly thereafter, when a franchise unit was about to close, he pooled savings, credit, and investment from partners to acquire it. That risk was the start of his franchising career.
Amol had grown to 31 Friendly's restaurants over the years, becoming known for revitalizing underperforming stores into successful ventures.
Bought all franchisees of Friendly’s
Then, in July 2024, came the culmination.
His investment team, Legacy Brands International, bought Friendly's itself, along with parent entity Brix Holdings and six other restaurant brands, including Red Mango, Smoothie Factory, and Humble Donut Co.
Today, his group is managing over 250 stores in the U.S.
Read More: Bihar Friends Clock Rs 1.5 Cr Monthly By Selling Flavoured & Raw Makhanas In Bulk To 41+ Indian & International Food Brandsneh
Journey marked by challenges
The ride, though, hasn't been smooth. Friendly's had 800 units but declined to around 100 after it went bankrupt in 2020.
Reviving the brand is no mean feat. Yet Amol perceives opportunities through modernization, new franchise agreements, and most crucially, reframing food service as a long-term profession.
“Some of the people on my executive team now were dishwashers and cooks,” he says, pointing to his own path as proof that growth in hospitality is possible from the ground up.