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

TGI Fridays, aka "Thank God It's Fridays," started out as the ultimate place for singles to mingle. Now a huge chain, but back in 1965 it was a humble happy hour spot in New York City's Upper East Side. TGI Fridays has been through a lot in its 60 years of existence, including a bankruptcy, settlements, and sneaky menu practices. 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. Potato skins were really more of a way to get rid of extra ingredients, but Melman claims he was also influenced by health. Potato skins are high in vitamin C (so stop peeling your potatoes), and, when sailors consumed them back in the day (sans dairy and fatty bacon), it was particularly helpful in fighting off scurvy.

The story of The Prime Rib's potato skins was unexpectedly inspired by some of the world's greatest chefs: James Beard, Julia Child, and Jacques Pepin, just to name a few. The beloved recipe, coined originally as Greenberg potato skins, traces back to a Baltimore resident, Shirlee S. Rice. When taking part in a Walters Art Museum cooking seminar back in the '70s, Rice jotted down a passing comment about baking excess potato skins in the oven and took the idea home with her. It was Prime Rib regular Teddy Greenberg who then tried her new signature appetizer and spread the potato love, requesting they be added to the menu.

When Googling potato skins, TGI Fridays will be quick to pop up. In addition to the infamous menu item, the brand also sells frozen versions of the appetizer and even has its own brand of potato skin-flavored chips. The restaurant's crispy fried cooking method and signature toppings go back decades and have become the standard potato skin preparation. The flavors of crackling bacon, shredded cheddar, sour cream, and a heavy hand of chopped chives are associated with potato skins more than the actual potato itself.

Some folks may question the appetizer's origin, but TGI Fridays has never hesitated to claim ownership, notably posting so on its official TGI Fridays X account. Even if TGI Fridays didn't directly invent potato skins, the chain restaurant has definitely helped put the savvy appetizer on the American map. Since its 1970s uprise, potato skins have become part of the classic American appetizer spread, alongside deep-fried favorites like mozzarella sticks and jalapeño poppers, which, coincidentally, TGI Fridays also serves packaged in the freezer aisle.