TGI Fridays Nailed For Doctoring Booze (1 Viewer)

[FLIPPY]

Not a big fan of Fridays, but this makes me wonder how many other restaurants participate in this practice.....and what do you think they serve as food....

I knew some guys that ran the old Friar Tucks on Claiborne and they said they did this type of thing all the time....

TGI Fridays nailed for doctoring booze - CBS News

Twenty-nine bars and restaurants, nearly half of them TGI Fridays, filled premium brand liquor bottles with lower-quality booze and sold it to patrons who thought they were buying the good stuff, authorities said Wednesday.

Worse yet, investigators said at least one New Jersey bar was mixing food dye with rubbing alcohol and serving it as scotch. Officials would not say who used the rubbing alcohol. But they said no health issues were reported.

 

[WhoDat!5]

 

[buzd]

"Operation Swill"

 

[FLIPPY]

"Operation Swill"

I thought that was pretty funny as well.....

 

[FLIPPY]

Damn, I just noticed I open this on the SSF, sorry guys.... Mods, can you move it to the EE... Appreciate it.... Damn ipad

 

[jessy]

Wow! They should revoke the liquor license for life.

 

[zeetes]

good thing i hate tgif.

 

[Lurkaholic]

Rubbing alcohol and food coloring? WHAT?!

 

[Hey Beerman]

Wow! They should revoke the liquor license for life.

Very true!

Also, I know for sure I've questioned whether I've been served what I've actually ordered before at these types of places.

Now I save ordering the good stuff for classier establishments like Saints games in the Dome

 

[zatsnzapps]

When I read the title, my first thought was this has to be a franchise.

It is.

Friday's has several restaurants owned by corporate, based out of Dallas, and they also sold territories to some franchisees. Corporate keeps a very tight leash on the restaurants it owns, so I cannot imagine any corporate-owned restaurant replacing the liquor in bottles.

There are some good franchises, and some not so good. The problem is many of the franchisees aren't as reputable as the corporate brand. Even though they are supposed to adhere to the same standards as the corporate restaurants, the owners can get greedy and force things like this.

FWIW, the old Friday's on Vets was initially a corporate restaurant and then sold as part of a territory in the very early 90s. The franchisee then opened the one in the Quarter.

 

[SaintStephen]

When I read the title, my first thought was this has to be a franchise.

It is.

Friday's has several restaurants owned by corporate, based out of Dallas, and they also sold territories to some franchisees. Corporate keeps a very tight leash on the restaurants it owns, so I cannot imagine any corporate-owned restaurant replacing the liquor in bottles.

There are some good franchises, and some not so good. The problem is many of the franchisees aren't as reputable as the corporate brand. Even though they are supposed to adhere to the same standards as the corporate restaurants, the owners can get greedy and force things like this.

FWIW, the old Friday's on Vets was initially a corporate restaurant and then sold as part of a territory in the very early 90s. The franchisee then opened the one in the Quarter.

Who would choose to eat at TGIFs if they're in the Quarter? Insanity!

 

[THENZA]

I worked at the Bennigan's on Severn in Metairie many years ago. We took liquor percentages every month and the goal was about 21%. (I'm not gonna explain the formula, not important.)

Anyway, we were always turning in 24, 25% on our liquor.
The regional manager also ran the Baton Rouge store at the mall. Our manager was always harping on how their liquor sales were so much better than ours and their bartenders turned in 18, 19% on their liquor. He even accused us of stealing. (We drank a lot. Irrelevant)

But, I ended up transferring to the mall Bennigan's at one point-WORST JOB IN THE HISTORY OF EVER- and one of the bartenders told me that they would pour cheap vodka into premium bottles once they were about half empty. Never saw it happen at my store, and I've never done it, but I'm sure it happens all the time.

 

[zeetes]

I worked at the Bennigan's on Severn in Metairie many years ago. We took liquor percentages every month and the goal was about 21%. (I'm not gonna explain the formula, not important.)

Anyway, we were always turning in 24, 25% on our liquor.
The regional manager also ran the Baton Rouge store at the mall. Our manager was always harping on how their liquor sales were so much better than ours and their bartenders turned in 18, 19% on their liquor. He even accused us of stealing. (We drank a lot. Irrelevant)

But, I ended up transferring to the mall Bennigan's at one point-WORST JOB IN THE HISTORY OF EVER- and one of the bartenders told me that they would pour cheap vodka into premium bottles once they were about half empty. Never saw it happen at my store, and I've never done it, but I'm sure it happens all the time.

monte cristo, where art thou?

 

[RazorOye]

from the AJC:

Local Atlanta Franchises Expect No Fallout from Operation: Swill

The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce has issued a statement on behalf of Atlanta metro area chain franchise restaurants in the wake of the Operation Swill scandal. There is no other metropolitan area in the United States with a greater concentration of chain restaurants or a higher number of chain restaurants per capita than Atlanta; as such, the scandal has hit the business community hard.

Chamber of Commerce spokesperson, Ruby "Chili" McDonald, attempted to defend the practices by explaining, "Our local franchise restaurants were simply giving Atlanta-area customers what they wanted. Look, everyone knows that people in Atlanta lack taste..." he seemed to hesitate before adding, "buds."

"Atlantonianians flock to our chamber's restaurants in numbers you'll find no higher anywhere else in the country. We serve them food that is so heavily preservative-laden that they don't really know how things taste anymore. We're not sure if they've become accustomed to it or the amount of chemicals we put in the foods have actually burned their tastebuds. But, at the end of the day, blind taste tests show that they don't know whether they are eating a Bloomin' Onion from Outback or the Southwestern Egg Rolls from Chili's.

"The next step in that natural progression was the booze. We've been swapping out high end spirits with well brands for years now and our customers are none the wiser. They come in here, looking to drown their sorrows and hope that inebriation will add some color and spark to their lives in this generic gray landscape. Good Ol' Gran' Pappy will get you there as quickly as Johnnie Walker will.

"Our businesses are just living out the free market dream, capitalizing on a previously untapped market strategy. We won't apologize and we have no reason to believe our chains will suffer at all."

Initial reports of reservations indicate that Mr. McDonald is correct. Reservation numbers at local chain restaurants have not dipped since the news.

While this might seem an irrelevant figure for most metro areas, Atlantonianites see trips to Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesday's, TGIFriday's, and Logan's Roadhouse as fine dining options. And they make sure to secure seating at their favorite locations during peak times: Friday and Saturday nights and Sundays during football season, preferring our atmosphere to whatever they call it in the aptly-generically-named Georgia Dome.

At the conclusion of the press conference, coupons and gift certificates were handed out to all reporters in attendance, which led to a small riot. Three have been hospitalized while a dozen others suffered minor injuries. Please see Page 5 in the City Beat[ings] section for more details on this part of the story.

We tracked down one customer at the Applebee's around the corner after the presser, at 11:30, three drinks into his lunch and asked him what he thought about this new information.

"Look, man. What's in the glass? Do you know? Do I know? Does anyone? Does it matter? I just got **** to forget."

We suspect the rest of Atlanta to follow suit shortly in numbers that are undiminished.

 

[St. Guinness]

Haha you had me at "Ruby 'Chili' McDonald"

Oh how I wish that was a real name.