Business & Tech

Longtime Friendly's Waitress Shocked by Closing [VIDEO]

Helen Smolak, a 27-year waitress at the restaurant, was devastated Wednesday by the sudden closing of Friendly's at Dedham Plaza.

After 27 years working as a waitress at Friendly's, Helen Smolak is a bona fide historian of the restaurant, and has stored what customers favor for breakfast and lunch in her Fort Knox-sized memory vault.

But late Tuesday evening, Smolak, a Dedham native, received a disturbing phone call at her Foxborough home: her in Dedham Plaza closed - permanently.

"They phone rang, and [my manager] said, 'Helen, we're closed.' I said, 'Yeah, it is 10 o'clock.' She's like, 'No Helen, we're closed,'" Smolak said.

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A teary-eyed Smolak returned Wednesday morning to hugs, kisses and tears from many loyal customers who work at other stores in Dedham Plaza. As she talked with each one, Smolak, 56, reeled off their favorite Friendly's dishes.

"Customers would come in and they wouldn't even order - they wouldn't have to order," Smolak said. "This is my heart. They're good to me and I'm good to them."

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Friendly's abruptly closed 63 of its restaurants Tuesday evening without notifying staff, Dedham employees said. A district manager at the Dedham location arrived Wednesday to collect keys from Smolak and other employees declined to comment to reporters.

"I feel like I was betrayed," Smolak said.

Friendly's opened in 1935 in Springfield, and the Dedham store opened in 1957, Smolak said.

"Nobody knows more about Friendly's than I do," Smolak said.

The waitress' commitment to the family restaurant began at the age of 15 when she took a part-time job for seven years before diving into other endeavors. 

"I came up here one night and I literally watched one girl throw a hamburger at a customer, and I went home and said to my husband - 27 years ago - 'If there is an opening, I'm going back to Friendly's," Smolak said.

Days later she was hired and donned the many reincarnations of Friendly's uniforms ever since.

For now Smolak and others are out of jobs, and she said she doesn't know what she'll do next - she even joked she would open her own place, and then asked customers if they wanted to invest.

Customers said they'll miss their waitress, her morning greetings and the don't-need-to-order service they received from her.

"It was our lunch destination everyday," said Faith DiCicco, who works at . "There were times when you go over there and she knew we were running [late] and she would bring our lunch right over to us. You don't get that kind of service nowadays. It's sad. It is absolutely sad."

Even after the Wall Street Journal reported last week that the corporation would soon file Chapter 11 papers, Smolak said she had faith the company would make a comeback.

"I thought they would re-establish. Go back to being the old Friendly's," she said.

For customers and staff things seemed normal on Monday and the closing came as a surprise, but Smolak said she "saw the writing on the wall."

"But we knew no more than [customers]," Smolak said. "When the [Blake] brothers owned us and Hershey owned us - it was good."


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