Is This a Step Up, or Down?

What's worse? TGI Friday's or Arby's?

It's a rhetorical question. They're equally bad. Not relatively speaking—relatively speaking, if I had to choose, I would always enter an Arby's before I went in a TFI Friday's—but when the question is, "What business is the worse fit for the landmarked Gage & Tollner building?"

Is there no end to the indignities that the Fulton Street, 19th-century interior must suffer? Apparently not. Where you could once order Lobster Newberg you will now be able to get an All-American Roastburger.

Here's a scariest part of the story: "The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission received a Jan. 16 application for interior alterations from Raymond Chera, a Brooklyn-based franchisee who plans to open 41 new Arby’s in the five boroughs over the next 10 years. Landmarks spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon said the proposed alterations would be considered at a hearing. Chera, who expects to open the restaurant this spring and hire about 60 employees, insisted its gas lamps and wall-length mirrors will survive the dramatic transformation.

And the capper:

“We’re keeping everything in place, and anything we move in will be nonpermanent and easy to move out,” said Chera. “It will probably be the most beautiful Arby’s ever.”

Hilarious.