The Underhanded Bribe That Made Tater Tots A Breakfast Staple

There have been instances throughout history of amazing foods born from byproducts. One such example is the ingenious origin of tater tots, which were created using potato scraps the founders of Ore-Ida didn't want to waste. While this is a somewhat-known origin story, what most don't know is that the tasty tot almost didn't get past the starting line after its invention. It took some clever thinking and a little old-fashioned bribery.

In 1954, Francis Nephi Grigg was standing in a Miami beach hotel, far from his home base in Ontario, Oregon. In his possession was a 15-pound bag of his new potato product, the world's first tater tots, which he'd smuggled across the country into the Fontainebleau Hotel. He'd arrived during the National Potato Convention, but he wasn't there to enter his invention into any contests. Instead, he wanted the hotel to serve the tots for breakfast to a group of men well-experienced in all things potato.

He hadn't made any arrangements to do this, however. Instead, he'd just shown up with tots in hand, so the hotel chef was initially reluctant to help him. Grigg found he had to resort to bribery to convince the man to cook and serve the bite-sized spuds. After some persuasion, the chef agreed, and tables received a little saucer of tots to try.

Reviews came in quickly, as people practically inhaled the fried potato creations. More importantly, diners asked where they could get more. Grigg took home this major win with excitement for the future, but the tater tot journey to fame and fortune was just beginning. After all, the product didn't even have a name yet.

After this encouraging test, Francis and his brother Golden (yes, that's his actual name) decided their product deserved a catchy title. According to one version of the story, the two worked with a research team to brainstorm, but initially only found duds. Potato Logs, Spud Rounds, and Petite Potatoes were all scrapped. One member finally thumbed through a thesaurus for the word "tater," and found a listed synonym was "tot." The brothers loved the alliterative combination, and in 1956 they trademarked the name Tater Tots. The name of the brainy committee member behind the name has unfortunately been lost to time.

Even with the new title, Tater Tots suffered a rough start. It was clear from the success in Florida (a land prized for its sweet Valencia oranges) that the little nuggets were delicious, but convincing people to buy them proved difficult. The brothers initially set the price low, but they soon figured out that people assumed the tots lacked value. Once they raised the price, tots started to sell. All it took was for people to try them once for the product to gain traction, much like what happened in the hotel dining room.

Nowadays, the potato treats appear in everything from simple breakfasts to tater tot nachos, aka totchos. "Tater Tots" is still a name owned by Ore-Ida, but it's so popular that it's passed into common usage, like Popsicle. They are such a big deal that Ontario, Oregon even holds a yearly festival to commemorate their birth. True tater fans will know their actual launch happened thanks to a clever bribe in Miami Beach.