When Consumerist broke this story, I was in the area of a TGI Fridays' and couldn't help but tell the story to my friends.

Strangely- we went in anyway, and all we did was avoid ordering Broccoli.

Since the economy was in bad shape before May, I think that if they are suffering from a drop off post the snake head incident, it is probably due to all the press surrounding it.

That said, if calorie counbts on the menu haven't stopped me from going, this wouldn't either

"We thought it was a great way to give summer a kick start and also give guests a chance to try some of our new menu items."

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the new "Snake n' Broc" appetizer is not going to bring many customers in...

As a resident of Albany,NY area I haven't even being to TGI. I prefer to cook my food myself.... for work (lunch) and for home.

Rest assure, there'll be no snaking-up in my pot when I'm cooking.... nada zip zap ...no surprise....

And best of all, it's much healthy considering my cooking skills (trained by my mama)

*damn* i meant been.. where's the edit button?

Herp perp...nice!

The fact that they can't figure out where the snake head came from bothers me the most. If I was a potential TGI Friday's customer (which I will never be after they hired that douche Guy Fieri to do commercials), I would probably eat there if they could isolate it to a perturbed employee or a mix up at the factory.

Those are things I can understand. Those are things people can control. The fact that there's snake heads just appearing in TGI Friday's food and that, in all likelihood, it could happen again, would have me repelling away from that place like a magnet.

Sadly, decomposed snake head was probably the lowest fat, lowest sodium item served at any TGIFridays within recent memory.

If it wasn't cooked in the food, and they can't figure out where else it might have come from... might the customer have placed it there? I mean, yea, "don't blame the customer" and all that, but is it really not a possibility?

I go by the "if they found one snake head in the food, what are the odds of them finding another one in mine?" theory.

@mgy: "We dont know where it came from" is the nice way of saying "the customer did it in an attempt to get money"

@RandomHookup: 1 snake head in probabaly 10s (if not hundreds) of millions of dishes served.

Id say the chance is pretty low.

@mgy: They established that it didn't get cooked with the broccoli, so it's nothing to do with the factory. Odds are good it's something to do with the customer.

The customer is the FIRST thing I thought of.

Oh, sure, let the rowdy kids into the restaurant but tell the decomposing snake heads that there's a dress code. Yeah, ok, fine. I'll just take my business elsewhere.

@the_gank:

Since you mentioned the edit button, it's also "healthier"

@Shadowfire: definitely a possibility, it's happened before. It's kind of like a slightly more plausible yet slightly more disgusting version of "Waiter, there's a dead guy in my soup"

Considering the types of people I know work in restaurants, I'm surprised one doesn't see more glass pipes, roach clips, and Mickey's Malt Liquor bottle caps in restaurant meals.

It's possible that the recipients of the snake head declined any compensation, which would mean that there wasn't much of a motive for them to have placed it, which would lead to TGI F's having to put its tail between its legs and pass out coupons. One could theorize endlessly about motives, but I'd rather do it somewhere with better food and stronger drinks.

Foreign objects do end up in food from time to time. Considering how much food is processed for restaurants and the percentage of meals eaten there, it's plausible that an erstwhile snake's head or migrant's toenail would end up in the food. From such a perspective, it's sanctimonious to act as if this is some unique cosmic punishment inflicted only upon TGI F's due to its prole menu and employment of a man with drunken frat-boy smarm and the head of a puffer fish. In the case of TGI Friday's, merely being TGI Friday's is bad enough.

@Megalomania:

You're probably alluding to this:

Customer: Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?!

Waiter: I do believe it's the backstroke, sir.

@Blueskylaw: All I want is an edit button that says "You have two minutes to edit this post"... I think Digg used to/still uses such a system. It can't be that hard!

*proofreads*

@floraposte: Or a dissatisfied cook/waiter. Say, accidentally dropped it on a floor, picked it up and the snake head came along for the ride. Or inserted on purpose after cooking by a waiter. Hey, you people say things like that happen.

@Shadowfire: Maybe they;re saying that because they can't rule out the kitchen staff putting it there after cooking?

People always take the most pessimistic view in situations like this.
They should emphasize, "New guarantee: NO field mice in your broccoli. Or the soup's on us!"

I am not above signing up for email notifications for this deal... I live in the capital region, and I'm not completely convinced that the restaurant did this.

I'm not ashamed to say... I love TGI Fridays and another restaurant in the area called The 99. (Cue the booing) Sure I can make all their crap at home, but it's sooooo much better to be served boneless buffalo wings and potato skins, no dishes, get a night out away from the kids....

On today's episode of Why Can't Johnny Put A Coherent Sentence Together, we present this gem from Dave Detling at Capital 9 News: "[TGI Fridays is] soliciting buy one get one free coupons through email."

Kids, this means that Friday's is asking for coupons. That's really not going to help their business. Not to mention that solicit does have that one slightly salacious meaning as well. . . Maybe Dave meant that Friday's is offering coupons via email.

We've only got the one language, let's treat it nicely. Tune in tomorrow when we see CNN "beg the question."

@Mark Swieca:

Ba ha ha ha!

@RandomHookup:

I'm more worried about where the *rest* of that snake is.

I worked at a Friday's in Bucks County PA a few years ago for a short time. I will never, ever forget finding a Roach in the balsamic vinaigrette, flailing as it died. I told my shift manager of the roach, and was asked, "Do you eat balsamic vinaigrette?" "Well, no." I replied. "Neither do I." He said, giving me a sort of wink, meaning, who cares? I will always associate those types of 'mall restaurants' with such grimey conditions.

@MickeyMoo: Less sodium than your average used band-aid and unlike a human finger, is fat-free! Welcome to the Lighter Side of Fridays!

@Applekid: That is one nasty piece of flair..

Does anyone else still have a gag reflex, even after all this time?

@larrymac:

Main Entry: so·lic·it
Pronunciation: s&-'li-s&t
Function: transitive verb
1 : to make petition to
2 : to ask, induce, advise, or command (a person) to do something and esp. to commit a crime —compare COERCE, IMPORTUNE
3 : to attempt to persuade (a person) to purchase something

I refer you to #3. Do you really need to say something like what you said? You pretty much just sound like a huge jerk to no end.

@MargotDawidude: Yeah, I used to work in produce at stop + shop, there were roaches all over the back room, in the fruit boxes (I think they liked the sugar) and the freezers. My manager used to have fun slicing them in half with the giant knives we had.

As another resident of Albany,NY I see this is just another reason not to A)Never go to chain restaurants and B)live in Albany, NY.

@verucalise:

boooooooooooo urns