New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-07-27
QUICK LUNCH ROOM TERMS
PHRASES USED WHERE FILLING FOOD
IS DISPENSED WITH LITTLE
CEREMONY. "a
..To vou. the uninitlated. these ="

"To you. the uninitated. these ="
When the great majority of the quick lunch
room proprietors of New-York agreed last week to
raise the price of beef an" also of ham an"
from 10 TO 10 cents and their momentous decision
was duly. II somewhat jocularly. recorded IN the
papers. the surprising fact developed that there
are actually TO be fOun0 men and women In this
city who do not know what beef an ," is
Beef and what?' asked a downtown business
man, as he read his paper going home on the L.
We'll you don't know beans, for fact his
companion laughed.
That's it. eh?' said the first But how should
1 know whether it beans or cabbage2 I
go TO that sort OF place to eat"
And there thousands like this man.
who went to that sort Of a place to eat
have carefully forgotten that they ever had to.
How 1.-THE other half eats is unknown to them.
They enter a cafe where the linen Is liberal and
snowy. give their order conhdentially TO a silent
waiter, and by and by their food comes to them,
under cover. There is something private. even
intimate, about the whole process, however
crowded the CATS. They do not know the strange
sensatiOn-stranse at frst-Of having ones order
beloved through the hall" OF drinking coffee out
of handleless cups thick they stretch the
mouth to rim them; and, greatest loss OF an,
they do not know the curious system of abbrevia-
ton that prevails in such places authorizations that
are often metaphors in the rough, and OF which
ham an " Is only a faint suggestion
If you this style OF a lunch room, YOU
enter. sit down at bare and not too clean table
and wait quietly 10 be served You are likely 10
wait some time. but while you wait you hear
bare armed waiter roar down passage. Sind up
the goat" That's easy. You know he wants more
butter. Then he cries. Beef an " and you know
that. Plate O. Bostons isn't hard either But
Make II two, sunny side up is a staggerer. How
ever, the solution is smPle-twO eggs fried on one
side only.
Finally. you get tired of waiting. and by pound
Ing glass with spoon and sundry gesttculations
you get waiter TO come 10 you Give ne some
Poached eggs on toast" you say. and cup or
The waiter turns toward the kitchen and shouts
Noah on raft Then he wheels toward the
steamins, polished coffee tanks and cries. Draw
,.r say" you call with an afterthought. IT guess
Wreck Noah calls the waiter soIemnIy.
get What yGa 6 5ReE may well seem to be that you
There are many such phrases some OF them com:
mon 10 all the "Srub-On-the-run' places, some OF
"A little on the cow is milk Draw one-bIack.
symbol meaning that the waiter who calls has
griddle means butter cakes those deadly bullets.
or, rather small cannon balls OF dough. which are
sinkers." but which 1t is high treason 70 can by
Put up the a "f means eansh mSeanon lust
one seems able 10 explain though there IS vaguely
and the Stars and Stripes Brown the wheats'
While two IN three snies t6s1 2HnSakes
Two eggs boiled three minutes. Red. white and
The crown Of the collection however. is to be
tounu on the BoWeTy, where there Is much poetry
in the block. anyway. There. if YOU Should han
pen TO have the sort OF taste that demands mince
pie with powdered sugar on top. YOU will hear
Storm - - ~"
one cannot well object that there is r,ors tr,,+b
than beauty in such phrase, for IL been stated
on eminent authority that truth is beauty So one
cannot shun these lunch rooms logically on ses-
thetic grounds. IL you demand yoSlr coffee in q
thin cup with a handle coffee in the she'll as
the waiter scornfully orders. YOU will be snubbed
as a dude But IL you accept conditions as YOU and
them YOU will get food that Is at least CHILLING
as they say in New-England, and YOU Will IN
doubtedly save money. Many good man. indeed
has eaten there, not because he had nor because
he thought he had to- but because he liked to-
The penning OF many a criticism OF the NiebeIun-
genlied bristling with the cabuIary of sestheti
cisIn, mas been followed by plate OF beef an
and the phrases OF culture. ping pong wise have
been tossed back and forth the grease-polshed
tables And surely il is better 20 wreck Noah
when his son Is so near TO render ilial service