A customer at a Wisconsin Texas Roadhouse restaurant complained that his steak was overcooked, and a spiteful staffer who thought he was lying to scam free food stuffed pieces of his facial hair inside the meat. The same employee later claimed to have stuffed a steak with pubic hair. This story may sound familiar to old-school Consumerist fans: we posted it in 2008, and it appeared on our list of all-time grossest food stories. The hairy steaks are in the news again. What’s happened in the intervening four years? Lawsuits.

The employee who cut a slit in the steak and stuffed it with hair ultimately served six months in prison for food tampering.  The customer, who gagged on the hairy steak and ended up in the hospital, sued Texas Roadhouse for negligence. A jury found that the restaurant wasn’t negligent in letting a hairy steak out of the kitchen, but awarded the customer $130,000 in compensatory and punitive damages as well as court costs. On Wednesday, a Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled that the restaurant wasn’t liable, and doesn’t have to pay the customer.

Wisconsin court nixes $150K award in hair-in-steak case [AP] (Thanks, Mike!)

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