Menu Description: "Loaded with cheddar cheese and bacon. Served with sour cream and chives."

Perfume salesman Alan Stillman was a single guy in New York City in 1965, looking for a way to meet women who lived in his neighborhood. He figured a hip way to get their attention: Buy a broken-down beer joint in the area, jazz it up, an call it "The T.G.I.F." to attract the career crowd. Within a week, police had to barricade the area to control the crowds flocking to Alans new restaurant. The restaurant made $1 million in its first year - a lot of dough back then. And soon restaurateurs were imitating the concept across the country.

In 1974 T.G.I. Friday's invented an appetizer that would also be copied by many others in the following years. Today potato skins are still the most popular item on the T.G.I. Friday's menu, with nearly 4 million orders served every year. The recipe has the added benefit of providing you with leftover baked potato ready for mashing to use in another dish.

Source: "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes" by Todd Wilbur.