T.G.I. Friday's on Hitt Road closes

The restaurant gods giveth and the restaurant gods taketh away.

We got a note Tuesday from BizMojo reader Andrea Villalpando Todd that T.G.I.Friday's, 2665 S. 25th East was closing and Tuesday would be its last day. Sure enough, trucks arrived this morning to strip the furnishings. Management was told it was for lack of profit, said Todd, who had friends working there and who attended "the last supper" herself.

The restaurant lasted six years and employed 37 people. Not much more to report, but we may note that Hitt Road seems to be a survival-of-the-fittest environment for restaurants, chain or local. Everybody is making a big fuss over Chick-fil-A, but it was Fazoli's before that and we saw how long that lasted.

Given the location, it's hard to imagine some operator won't want to jump on the site and put something else in. What do you think would do well? What would you like to see?

Areva suspends plans for Idaho uranium enrichment

This is not good news, considering that the $3 billion project was expected to create about 1,000 new jobs over the first two years and 400 permanent jobs. Nevertheless, given the reaction to Fukushima earlier this year and the present state of Europe's economy, only an incredibly optimistic person would be surprised by this.

The bad news for Idaho starts in the sixth paragraph. 

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/areva-cut-1500-jobs-germany-15142862?singlePage=true

Dickey's BBQ plans to open in Idaho Falls

Thanks to one of our faithful tipsters, BizMojo Idaho has learned that Dickey's BBQ Pit will be opening a store in Idaho Falls in 2012, at 2090 East 17th Street (the former location of Taco John's).

Our confirmation came too late Monday to place a call to the 70-year-old, Dallas-based chain's home office. The company's map of scheduled grand openings, http://locations.dickeys.com/grand_openings/default.aspx, only goes to Jan. 19, 2012, so we think it's logical to surmise it will be after that.

Dickey's was started in 1941 by Travis Dickey, Sr., whose mission statement (if such a thing existed then) was, "Serve the best tastin' barbecue imaginable, just the way people like it. And don't make 'em wait too long to get it."

In the past 10 years, the chain has been expanding aggressively across the United States. The Idaho Falls restaurant will bring Idaho's total to three. One is already open Meridian, and another is planned for Nampa.

You want publicity? Here's some advice

Having been inside the belly of the whale called journalism, plenty of people ask me how they can get publicity for their churches, theater companies, businesses, etc.

It can be done. The thing to remember is that a news editor is actually looking for stories. The same is true for bloggers. Coal needs to be shoveled into the furnace all the time for the Titanic to keep steaming toward the iceberg.

It all comes down to writing an effective press release. I've seen plenty, most of them pretty bad. If you want your story printed, there are a few things you can do. This applies to e-mail or snail mail.

Contact information: Put your name, title and phone number at the top, so that the reporter or editor knows who to call.

Headline: Why should the reader be interested? It may be the most interesting thing in the world to you, but people (and editors are people, my friend) have lots of things competing for their attention. What makes you so newsworthy?

Copy: Spell out the who, what, when, where and why. Make it read as much like a news story as possible. Quote members of your organization, but do not quote yourself (big turn-off). Keep it short and simple. One page is better than two.

Avoid these phrases:

First Annual. If you're back for an encore you can say "second annual," but no self-respecting editor is going to allow "first annual" into print, and you're going to get demerits for using it.

Proudly Presents. As opposed to what, "reluctantly presents" or "half-heartedly presents"?

Breakthrough, Unique, State of the Art, etc. Let the editor be the judge of how epic your news is.

Don't be bashful about sending your news to me. Even if it's only a couple of sentences, I will give it my attention and if I think it's worth readers' attention you'll see it here. If you write long, don't be hurt if your golden prose gets reduced to three or four paragraphs. Most people read only three or four paragraphs before they move on. I suspect many already have with this piece.

One last thing. If you want your press release to look really old school and impressive, at the bottom of the last page use this:

-30-

Carl's Jr. plans to open in Idaho Falls by Dec. 31

A spokeswoman for the company that owns Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., confirmed today that they hope to have the first Carl’s Jr. in Idaho Falls open by New Year’s Day.
“Our opening date has been shifting, but one should be opening by the end of this month,” said Kelly Grieve of CKE Enterprises, Inc.

Look at that juicy Carl's Jr. Burger.

There are two Carl’s Jr. locations planned for Idaho Falls, one on 17^th Street, where Schlotsky’s Deli used to be, and the other at the corner of North Holmes and Yellowstone Avenue, near Wendy’s. Judging by the progress at both sites (the North Holmes restaurant is being built from the ground up), it’s safe to predict that the 17^th Street location will open first.

Carl's Jr. has 11 locations in Idaho, most of them in the Boise area, the nearest one in Twin Falls. Its corporate office is located in Carpenteria, Calif. The chain dates back to 1941, when Carl N. Karcher and his wife, Margaret, borrowed $311 on their Plymouth and added their $15 in savings to buy a hot dog cart. Today, there are more than 1,200 Carl's Jr. restaurants, most in the West and Southwest.