TGI Fridays Claims To Have Invented This Appetizer In The '70s. Did It? - Tasting Table

"Drama aside, the brand has become associated with some iconic American appetizers, with potato skins being the restaurant's strongest point of pride. As TGI Fridays claims, one of the restaurant's crafty cooks created the concoction one night in 1974 with leftover potato scraps. As the story goes, he dropped the excess scooped-out potato into the deep-fryer, seasoned it liberally, added shredded cheese and crispy bacon, and ta-da - a potato skin."

"To this day, there's a lot of discussion surrounding the first platter of potato skins to ever hit the table. While TGI Friday's claims to be the first, there are two other establishments often included in the conversation. Chicago restaurant R.J. Grunts apparently offered potato skins ever since they first opened in 1971, three years before TGI Fridays claims discovery. Then, over on the East Coast, an old-school steakhouse called The Prime Rib seemingly served potato skins in the early 1970s as well."

"We may never land on a solid answer to who first created potato skins, but we can confirm who made them matter - and that credit all goes to TGI Fridays. Apparently, the menu item was never much of a hit at R.J. Grunts. The restaurant's co-founder, Richard Melman, recounted serving around 10 orders daily, if they were lucky. Melman found the starchy center more valuable than the skins, which were used to make the restaurant's popular cottage fries."

TGI Fridays opened in 1965 as a happy-hour spot on New York City's Upper East Side and later grew into a large restaurant chain. A TGI Fridays cook reportedly created potato skins in 1974 by deep-frying leftover scooped-out potato, seasoning it, and topping it with shredded cheese and bacon. Chicago’s R.J. Grunts offered potato skins from its 1971 opening, and The Prime Rib served them in the early 1970s as well. R.J. Grunts’ co-founder Richard Melman said the item sold only about ten orders per day and that the starchy centers were used for cottage fries. Melman said potato skins served as a way to use extra ingredients and that he was influenced by health.

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