page_title: Greasy spoon
hierarchical_section_title: Greasy spoon
caption_attribution_description: Terry's Coffee Shop, 291 Broadway, Brooklyn close to Marcy Ave station (awesome breakfast&#160;;-) )
context_page_description: A greasy spoon is a small, cheap eatery – either an American diner or coffee shop, or a British or Irish cafe – typically specializing in fried foods and/or home-cooked meals. The term "greasy spoon" has been used in the United States since at least the 1920s; and is sometimes used in the United Kingdom to refer to a cafe or caff, which is not to be confused with the European term café which may mean coffeehouse or bar. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "greasy spoon" originated in the United States and is now used in various English-speaking countries. In Ireland, the term is almost exclusively used in Ulster, especially throughout Northern Ireland and parts of County Donegal.
  The earliest appearance of the term in print, refers to events of an earlier time: a restaurant in Paris was visited daily by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1874.
  "...the Cremerie in the Rue Delambre, - an eating-house much frequented by artists, and familiarly known as The Greasy Spoon..."
context_section_description: A greasy spoon is a small, cheap eatery – either an American diner or coffee shop, or a British or Irish cafe – typically specializing in fried foods and/or home-cooked meals. The term "greasy spoon" has been used in the United States since at least the 1920s; and is sometimes used in the United Kingdom to refer to a cafe or caff, which is not to be confused with the European term café which may mean coffeehouse or bar. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "greasy spoon" originated in the United States and is now used in various English-speaking countries. In Ireland, the term is almost exclusively used in Ulster, especially throughout Northern Ireland and parts of County Donegal (chiefly East Donegal and Inishowen).
  The earliest appearance of the term in print (MacMillan's Magazine, 1906), refers to events of an earlier time: a restaurant in Paris was visited daily by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1874.
  "...the Cremerie in the Rue Delambre, - an eating-house much frequented by artists, and familiarly known as The Greasy Spoon..."
  Nicknaming cheap fried food restaurants after an unwashed spoon dates back at least to 1848: "The Gabbione [in Rome]... has withal an appearance so murky and so very far removed from cleanliness, that the Germans have bestowed upon it the apellation of the 'Dirty Spoon'."
caption: A counter in a greasy spoon in Brooklyn
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