Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-10-11
RESTAURANT LINGO.
A MYSTERIOUS LANGUAGE IN USE
IN NEW YORK EATING HOUSES.

IN NEW YORK EATING HOooeo'
Startling Terms for Ordinary EdioieS'
aud How They Orieinated-An h6Pia""
tion Of the Curious IInso-Phrsses Use"
in Leadyille.
4 STRANGER to restaurant living IS pretty I
ant to wonder what be has declded W ea'
when b. hears his order repeated Oy tne
waiter. lit may take him fifteen minutes 10
adjust his appetite to the bill OF fare. Den
cate financial questions may enter into 'pe
problem. But when the waiter calls out tiia'
order neither the stranger nor any other man.
except the cook, can tell WHISTLER the meal i
to be So spread" or a 2'-cent SNACK vi
course. this does not apply to the suihptuous
yictuaIing places of the DelmOnieo type
There the guest never hears his orueI gwen
Walters of icy dignity or profuse pohteneSs
noiseleSsly bear II TO the invisible region VI
the kitchen. In the popular restaurant II
different The cries that rend the air are as
varied as the odors OF cooked and cooking
eatabes that permeate It. and As mysterious
as the hash that is n staple OF the Dill OF iare'
The walters are not burdened with dignity
nor bothered by Politeness. They yell the
hungry mans wants from the front oil tle
room to the kitchen hole in the rear Win
reckless vigor and in a vernacular that deiies
Interpretation by those unversed III restaurant
cries.
Tommy in the bowl. Tommy does not
at first sound convey to ordinary ears
definite idea Of anything to cat. Neither do
such expressions as Bobby Blue on the
IRON "Mealo boilo busto," "Plum-up,' Il
with a B." and Tea no!- uttered with a
staccato movement 10 "plum-up" and from
that to 'tea- no" in wild crescendo. Yet these
were the terms In which a young man IN
downtown restaurant heard his modest meal
described by the waiter. The young man
examined the bill Of fare again He could
discover no reference therein to Tommys
intrusion in n bowl He was equally unable
TO gain clew to the proposed torture OF
Bobby Blue on presumably hot iron de
was still searching for n key to these strange
utterances when two men entered the res
taurant. They took seats opposite. The
waiter sent their combined order Ticocheting
back to the kitchen hole with Gimme a
double brownstOne front, spuds stew and
coffee moo! Come a-runnin'i" Then tall,
thin woman with spectacles and handbag
came in She planted herself angularly at
side table. She glanced at the bill in per
functory way, spoke tartly 10 the waiter, and
plunged into a volume OF Mr.. EmerSon's re-
Elections on the oveIsUul which she drew from
the handbag. An instant later the table
servitor announced, loud enough to be heard
by everyone in the place, that she wanted
~One West Broadway brown, an have her
extra hr-O-wnr'
ANXIOUS FOR A SOLUTION.
The Young mans interest in gustatOry de-
lights had long since given place to a study OF
the mystic sounds all around him he settled
himself to catch every new call a business
man was next TO give his order. 1t was
waited kitchenward by a leather-lunged
waiter: let the blood follow the knife once;
coffee, moo According to another lusty de
mand youth with thin legs and high col
| lar, who had Just come N, was hungry fol-
~P Yankee and corn from the neighbor, up
and up" By this time the two men opposite
| the listening yorng man had finished the
more substantial portion of their meal Their
waiter declared one was now ready for IT.
| o. K and BOTH and that the other had an
appetite for "CatskilL"
| Now thoroughly n,ystified, the young man
1 SDukUt lut Aildb al az
complished and jaunty young man, was tax
! ing in cash and checks with one hand and
deity throwing out change with the other, a
performance he lid not interInit for sec
| ond, even when it became necessary to sell an
impatient customer two fve-cent cigars for a
| quarter, berate waiter for negligence, and
| order the buck mutton for tO-mOrrow's lamb
stew.
81. 4 L.,
haven't been in the restaurant business in all
| parts of the country for fourteen years with,
out picking up point or two can explain
all these things TO you. Let me see-take
them down as | give thens to you, and the list
will make kind Of restaurant directory.
Seel To begin with, Tommy in the bowl
means one bowl of tomato soup; 'bouillon bow
| up is one bowl Of beef soup. p. Yankee
is a pea soup apd 'somee' is vermicelli. A
brown stone front is porterhouse steak
and a double brown stone front, porterhoust
for two West Broadway near. pork and
beans and have her brown an EXTRA brown
signifies that the beans are TO be well warmed
over. Bobby Blue on the iron is broiled
bluefish, and cash on delivery broiled cod
fish Corn from the neighbor' is corned
beef, and the adjunct, up and up means that
it must be streak and streak of fat and lean
while put the beans on brown calls for the
addition of beans TO the dish. Let the blood
follow the knife Is the signal for roast beet
extra rare. 'Spuds' are potatoes, and 'mealo
boilo, busto' means boiled potatoes that art
large, mealy and well cooked. It. o. X /
the call for tapioca pudding, and both
means both kinds OF sauce, hard and soft
Suet pudding is 'Catskill,' and 'plum-up' OF
plum Jo' means plum pudding t. with q
B. is tea biscuit, and corn bread is indicated
by brown the Jack or corn Johnny Ordel
stars and stripes and you'll get pork anG
beans When coffee or tea is desired with
out milk the call is coffee no or tea no.
HOW THE TERMS ORIGINATED.
sHow did these names originated Many o
them, probably with the negro walters, whC
are given to singing out their orders Then
/ suppose, some of them came from bright
white walters who tired of calling the sam,
old things The calls differ little in som,
restaurants, but the definitions l have giveI
you would be recognized in any popular New
York eating place The cooks get so used u
these slang terms they hardly know the com
moD articles by their right names"
as the custom general elsewheren
"Yes, indeed I've worked in restaurant,
or owned them in most parts of the country
and I've always found it so. The Salvation
Army runs very popular restaurant IL
Chicago. There butter cakes are called thre,
up there being three in an order; eggs fries
and turned are fry three over; buckwhea
cakes are brown the buck Such cries a
brown the hash and bave her extra brown,
ham and for ham and eggs, that mystery
for pie and similar expressions are heard con
staistly. In that case the cooks yell back th'
order as loudly as it is yelled at them, anC
you will hear waiter shout three up an
then a cook roar back, three up, riShtn
AT the 'Beanery,' the famous Bohemian
resort in St Louis, baked beans are brown