TGI Fridays the 13th: Season Finale

**Michael Ornelas** (0:11)
This is the Fine Dining Podcast, the search for the most mediocre, Scariest restaurant. Scariest restaurant, but also the most mediocre one in America. I'm your host, Michael Ornellis.

**Garrett Zwerk** (0:21)
And I'm your host, Garrett Zwerk.

**Michael Ornelas** (0:22)
And in this show, we're looking for the perfect five point double zero experience out of 10
In this show, we go to places and evaluate them based on their atmosphere, Based on their service. And of course, based on the food. Yum. Yum. This week, we went to a paragon of mediocrity, it would seem.

**Garrett Zwerk** (0:43)
A mediocrity classic.

**Michael Ornelas** (0:45)
TGI Friday is one of the places that I consider it a heavy hitter in this game.

**Garrett Zwerk** (0:50)
Like, if you have a name of a week in your name, you're pretty important.

**Michael Ornelas** (0:55)
Yeah. Can you imagine just a restaurant called Mondays? I don't think anyone would eat there. Ruby Tuesdays exists. I'm honestly surprised no one's capitalized on Saturday.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:05)
Fine dining party of two.

**Michael Ornelas** (1:07)
Anyways, our table is ready, so let's go on into TGI Friday. Hey there, Fine Dining Maniacs. Before we get too far into the episode, I just want to take a quick second to allow our friends over at the Snack Show with Jamie Fallon to tell you about their podcast.

**Jamie** (2:12)
Hi everyone, this is Jamie.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:14)
And this is Fallon.

**Jamie** (2:15)
And we co-host a podcast called The Snack Show with Jamie Fallon.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:18)
Every Friday, you can find Jamie and I embark on a weekly journey all about snacks, y'all, because everyone loves snacks. So let's talk about it. In each episode, we focus on a different type of snack. Chips, cookies, road trip snacks, holiday snacks, and so much more.

**Jamie** (2:34)
We've also got special guests sometimes, listener call-ins each week sharing their favorite snack, and always differing opinions, so there is something for everyone. We also have video episodes available on Spotify and YouTube.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:47)
So if you love to snack, come join us over at The Snack Show and check out our latest episodes streaming everywhere you listen or watch your favorite podcasts.

**Michael Ornelas** (2:58)
First Impressions I'm not trying to force this to be spooky, but in a way, it kind of was a little spooky.

**Garrett Zwerk** (3:06)
Like I felt like we walk in and there is no music.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:09)
There was a lot of dark corners, lots of just weird shadows.

**Garrett Zwerk** (3:14)
Red everywhere. It's like it's a murder room. The entire restaurant is a giant ass murder room.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:20)
Yeah, and it's got like the red and white picnic colors, which makes you feel like you're on an abandoned carousel and there's like a clown coming after you.

**Garrett Zwerk** (3:27)
Yeah, or if it were a little dirtier, it could be a perfect abandoned campground murder room.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:34)
You have a lot of experience with this?

**Garrett Zwerk** (3:37)
No.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:38)
The way you avoided eye contact while saying that was noteworthy to me. One of the things I noticed even driving up that, I mean, only adds to the creep factor of this place, the outside seating area was all plexiglass. Like, usually you'll get like a top half that's plexiglass or something. But this was like from the ground to the top of the barricade plexiglass. And it felt like a human zoo.

**Garrett Zwerk** (4:06)
If only there were like a viewing room for the murder room.

**Michael Ornelas** (4:09)
Oh, God.

**Garrett Zwerk** (4:10)
This is my thing on this episode, the murder room.

**Michael Ornelas** (4:12)
I mean, look, TGI Fridays put forth the vibe that it put forth. But it is worth noting that we weren't alone for this adventure. We actually had a group of five. It was you, me, Steven, our cheese correspondent, Herbert, my second most likely to be convicted of murder friend and my friend Sandy. Hey, hey, hey, hey.

**Garrett Zwerk** (4:35)
I don't think I'm ever likely to be convicted of murder. And nor is Herbert. Keyword convicted.

**Michael Ornelas** (4:43)
Now, there were signs when you walk inside and they kind of stole the outback thing. There's a big sign that encourages you to be friends with benefits. Why chain restaurants so horny?

**Garrett Zwerk** (4:57)
They just want your information, sell you targeted ads and put you on a mailing list, sell your information to data harvesting corporations. Yeah.

**Michael Ornelas** (5:06)
But in this episode, it's not data harvesting. It's human body harvesting, organ harvesting, organ harvesting ring.

**Garrett Zwerk** (5:13)
TGI Fridays is running an organ harvesting ring.