Diner lingo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Diner Lingo was/is used as a waiter/cook shorthand in diners and diner-style restaurants.
Contents |
[edit] History
The origin of diner lingo is not known, but there is evidence in its use by African-American waiters in the 1870s and 1880s. Many of the terms used are lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek and some are a bit racy or ribald, but are helpful mnemonic devices for short-order cooks and staff. Waffle Houses use diner lingo. Diner slang was most popular from the 1920s to the 1970s.
Today, diner lingo is not as prevalent as it was in the past because the rise of the fast food industry has in large part replaced the diner. Also, the use of computerized order systems has eliminated the need for wait staff to "call" orders. However, the use of restaurant diner lingo is still present in small towns as well as retro-style restaurants and is a colorful part of Americana. It is hardly ever used in actual diners.
[edit] Restaurant Diner Lingo List
Soup jockey: Waitress
Ladybug: Fountain Man
Bubble Dancer: Dishwasher
Angel: Sandwich Man
Gallery: Booth
Radar range: Microwave oven, from the Amana Radarange
Crowd: Three of anything (possibly from the saying "Two's company, three's a crowd")
Bridge or Bridge party: Four of anything (from bridge the card game)
Eighty-six: "Do not sell to that customer" or "The kitchen is out of the item ordered. To remove an item from an order or from the menu." Article 86 of the New York State Liquor Code defines the circumstances in which a bar patron should be refused alcohol or '86ed'. The Soup Kitchen Theory: during the depression of the 1930s, soup kitchens would often make just enough soup for 85 people. If you were next in line after number 85, you were '86ed'. The Eight Feet By Six Feet Theory: A coffin is usually eight feet long and is buried six feet under. Once in your coffin you've been 'eight by sixed', which shortens to '86ed'.
Let it walk/Go for a walk/On wheels/Give it shoes: An order to go, a takeaway order. It’s to go.
In the alley: Served as a side dish
Lumber: A toothpick
Chopper: A table knife
Blue-plate special: A dish of meat, potato, and vegetable served on a plate (usually blue) sectioned in three parts. This can also refer to the daily special.
Sea dust: Salt
Mike and Ike or The twins: Salt and pepper shakers
Hemorrhage: Ketchup
Paint it red: Put ketchup on an item
Lighthouse: Bottle of ketchup
Mississippi Mud or Yellow paint: Mustard
Warts: Olives
In the weeds: A waitress/cook that can't keep up with the tables. Refers back to chefs' military roots, where being in the weeds would cause your army to be slaughtered.
Java or Joe: Coffee
Draw one, a cup of mud: A cup of coffee
Pair of drawers: Two cups of coffee
Draw one in the Dark or Flowing Mississippi: A black coffee
No cow: Without milk
A blonde with sand: Coffee with cream and sugar
Hot top: Hot chocolate
Boiled leaves: Tea
A spot with a twist: A cup of tea with lemon
Yum Yum or Sand: Sugar
Gravel train: Sugar bowl
Sun kiss or Oh jay: Orange juice
Hug one or Squeeze one: A glass of orange juice
Moo juice or Cow juice or Baby juice or Sweet Alice: Milk
Canned cow: Evaporated milk
Billiard: Buttermilk
Throw it in the mud: Add chocolate syrup
Balloon juice or Belch water or Alka Seltzer: Seltzer, soda water
Hail: Ice
Hold the hail: No ice
Windmill Cocktail or Adam's ale or City juice or Dog soup: Glass of water
Shoot from the south or Atlanta special: Coca Cola, probably a reference to the fact that the headquarters of Coca-Cola is in Atlanta, Georgia, and dragging anything is likely to get it muddy, ie, darker, which would be the same result as adding chocolate syrup. Carbonated drinks such as Coca-Cola were originally served by pouring concentrated syrup into a glass and adding soda water, so they could be made to whatever strength the customer preferred.
Drag one through Georgia: Cola with chocolate syrup
An M.D.: A Dr Pepper
Fifty-five: A glass of root beer
Black and white: Chocolate soda with vanilla ice cream
White Cow: Vanilla milkshake
Shake one in the hay: Strawberry milkshake
Break it and shake it: Add egg to a drink
Creep: Draft beer
Life preservers: Doughnuts
Birdseed: Breakfast
Bailed hay: Hot Pocket(s)
Burn the British: Toasted English muffin
Looseners: Prunes, so called because of their supposed laxative effect.
Graveyard stew: Milk toast, Buttered toast, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, and dropped into a bowl of warm milk
Cackle fruit: eggs
Cow paste or Skid Grease or Axle grease: Butter
Smear: Margarine
C.J. Boston: Cream Cheese and jelly
Raft: Toast
Dough well done with cow to cover: Buttered toast
whiskey: Rye bread, as in rye whiskey
whiskey down: Rye toast, the 'down' part probably comes from the action of pushing down the handle on the toaster
Shingle with a shimmy and a shake: Buttered toast with jam or jelly, hence the reference to 'shake'.
Wreck ‘em: Scrambled eggs
Fry two, let the sun shine: 2 fried eggs with unbroken yolks
sunny side up: The eggs are fried without flipping them, so the yolk looks just like a sun on white background.
Flop two: Two fried eggs over easy
(Flop two) over easy: Fried egg flipped over (carefully!) and the yolk is still very runny. That means the other side is cooked for a few seconds
(Flop two) over medium: Turning over a fried egg and the yolk begins to solidify
(Flop two) over hard: Fried egg, flipped and cooked until the yolk is solid all the way through
Deadeye: Poached egg
Customer will take a chance: Hash
Sweep the kitchen or Sweepings, or Clean up the kitchen: A plate of hash
Mystery in the alley: A side order of hash
Marry bring items together for cleaning up, i.e. marry the salt and pepper.
Adam & Eve on a raft: Two poached eggs on toast
Cowboy, western: A western omelette or sandwich
Zeppelin: Sausage
Blowout patches: Pancakes
Stack or Short stack: Order of pancakes
Vermont: Maple syrup, because maple syrup comes primarily from the state of Vermont in the U.S.
A stack of Vermont: Pancakes with maple syrup
Machine Oil: Syrup
Noah's boy: A slice of ham (Ham was Noah's second son)
Noah’ boy on bread: A ham sandwich
Pigs in a blanket: A ham (sometimes a sausage) sandwich
Radio: Tuna salad sandwich on toast (a pun on "tuna down," which sounds like "turn it down," as one would the radio knob)
Radio Sandwich: Tuna Fish Sandwich
One from the Alps: A Swiss cheese sandwich
GAC: Grilled American cheese sandwich. This was also called "jack" (from the pronunciation of "GAC")
Jack Benny: Cheese with bacon (named after a radio comedian)
High and dry: A plain sandwich without butter, mayonnaise, or lettuce
Rabbit food: Lettuce
Keep off the grass: No lettuce
Breath: Onion
Pin a rose on it: Add onion to an order
BLT: Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich
Burn one: Put a hamburger on the grill
Hockey puck: A hamburger, well done
Chewed with Fine Breath: Hamburger with onions
Two cows, make them cry: Two hamburgers with onions
Burn one, take it through the garden and pin a rose on it: Hamburger with lettuce, tomato and onion
On the hoof: Any kind of meat cooked rare
Pittsburgh: Something burning, toasted or charred, so called because of the smokestacks once evident in Pittsburgh, a coal-producing and steel-mill city. In meat cookery, this refers to a piece of meat charred on the outside while still red within.
Bow-wow or Bun pup or Tube steak or Groundhog: a hot dog
Coney Island chicken or Coney Island: a hot dog, so called because hot dogs were popularly associated with the stands on Coney Island.
Bloodhounds in the Hay: Hot dogs and Sauerkraut
Hounds on an Island: Franks and beans
Bullets or Whistleberries or Saturday night: Baked beans, so called because of the supposed flatulence they cause.
Million on a platter: A plate of baked beans
Mayo: Mayonnaise
Quail: Hungarian Goulash
Mully, Bossy in a bowl: Beef Stew, so called because "Bossy" was a common name for a cow.
Frenchman's delight: Pea soup
Frog sticks: French fries
Bowl of red: A bowl of chili con carne, so called for its deep red color.
Wax: American cheese
Put out the lights and cry: An order of liver and onions "Lights" is a term sometimes used for the edible, mainly internal organs of an animal
Splash of red noise: A bowl of tomato soup
Paint a bow-wow red: Gimme a hot dog with ketchup
Bronx vanilla or Halitosis or Italian Garlic: Garlic
Dog biscuit: A cracker
Dog and maggot: Cracker and cheese
Cow feed: A salad
B and B: Bread and butter
Foreign Entanglements: Plate of Spaghetti
Beef Stick: Bone
First lady: Spare ribs, a pun on Eve's being made from Adam's spare rib.
Irish turkey: Corned beef and cabbage
Shit on a shingle, SOS: Minced beef with gravy on toast
Zeppelins in a fog: Sausages and mashed potatoes
Angels on horseback: Oysters rolled in bacon on toast
Well dressed diner: Codfish
A Murphy: A potato, so called because of their association with the Irish diet of potatoes, Murphy being a common Irish name
All hot: Baked potato
Wreath: Cabbage
Nervous pudding: Jello
Shivering Hay: Strawberry Jello
China: Rice pudding
Ice the rice: Rice pudding with ice cream
Sleigh Ride Special: Vanilla pudding
Magoo: Custard Pie
Eve with a lid on: Apple pie, referring to the biblical Eve's tempting of Adam with an apple. The "lid" is the pie crust
Eve with a moldy lid: Apple pie with a slice of cheese
Put a hat on it: Add ice cream
Fly cake or Roach cake: Raisin cake or huckleberry pie
Bucket of cold mud: A bowl of chocolate ice cream
Houseboat or Dagwood Special: A banana split made with ice cream and sliced bananas
Dusty Miller: Chocolate Pudding, sprinkled with powdered malt
Fish eyes or Cat's eyes: Tapioca pudding
Maiden's delight: Cherries, so called because "cherry" is a slang term for the maidenhead, hymen
Love Apples: Tomato's
Pope Benedict: An eggs benedict, but fit for a pope
[edit] Pop Culture References
- Ray Romano discusses diner lingo in his act when he talks about how it doesn't carry over into other professions. The bit can be heard on his Live from Carnegie Hall album.
- In a second-season episode of Gilmore Girls Lorelai helps out at Luke's restaurant and attempts to institute diner lingo, not entirely successfully.
- In an episode of The Emperor's New School, The school cook is imprisoned for using diner slang that she doesn't even understand.
