Much like the secret handshake of a members-only group, diner slang evolved from the late 1800s as a form of oral slang used by wait staff to communicate food orders to the short order cook.
Short order cooks – unlike line cooks or chefs – are required to cook food very fast on one of three tools: a griddle, a fryer, or a broiler. In all cases, they are called “short order cooks,” NOT because the orders are short, but because they are expected to cook the food in a very short period of time. The most classic short-order cook in America today works at family restaurants like Denny’s, Waffle House, Metro Cafe, and other breakfast-only restaurants.
Diner lingo is virtually unknown outside the United States. The light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek and even sometimes risqué phrases could be heard in wide use in busy diners during the 1920’s continuing on well into the 1970’s.
Diner lingo was never intended for use in speeding up the order-to-table process. Rather, it was a spontaneously developed mnemonic means of making orders easier to hear and remember above the conversational din of the busy diner. It also provided patrons and employees with a free form of entertainment.
Restaurant employees are famous for finding entertainment where they can and inventing it when they must.
While you can still hear some of the remnants of diner lingo in use today in classic diners, its prevalence has been drowned out by the emergence of fast food chains and computer ordering. However, if you’re fortunate enough to be sitting in a booth or at a counter being served by a veteran waitperson, listen close as they speak the “diner mother tongue.”
Below is a list of the things you might hear.
EVERY DINER SLANG EXPRESSION YOU ABSOLUTELY DON’T NEED TO KNOW BUT SHOULD LEARN ANYWAY
Compiled by Garrison Leykam, author of Classic Diners of Connecticut
#5: milk
#21: limeade
#41: lemonade
#51: hot chocolate
#55: root beer
#77: Seven-up with vanilla ice cream
50-50: cup of coffee or “Joe” with half-and-half
#81: water
#86: take an item off the order.
A Murphy: a potato
A spot with a twist: a cup of tea with lemon
A stack of Vermont: pancakes with maple syrup
Adam & Eve on a raft and wreck ‘em: two scrambled eggs on toast
Adam & Eve on a raft: two poached eggs on toast
Adam & Eve on a log: two poached eggs with link sausage
Adam’s ale: water
All day: altogether
All hot: baked potato
All the way: hot wiener with mustard, meat sauce, onions, and celery salt
An M.D./Doc: a Dr Pepper
Angels on Horseback: oysters rolled in bacon and served on toast
Arnold Palmer: Half sweet tea, half lemonade
Atlanta: Coca-Cola (the company is based in Atlanta, Georgia)
Axle grease/skid grease/cow paste: butter
B & B: bread and butter
B.L.T.: bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich
Baby juice/moo juice/cow juice/Sweet Alice: milk
Baby: glass of milk
Baled hay: shredded wheat cereal
Battle Creek in a bowl: bowl of corn flakes cereal (the Kellogg Company based in Battle Creek, Michigan)
Beef stick: bone
Belch water/balloon water: seltzer or soda water
Biddy board: french toast
Billiard: buttermilk
Bird: chicken
Birds in a nest: a fried egg on toast with a hole cut out of the center
Birdseed: breakfast
Black and blue: a steak cooked quickly over very high heat so that it is seared (black) on the outside and rare (blue) on the inside
Black and white: chocolate soda with vanilla ice cream
Black cow: chocolate milk or chocolate soda with chocolate ice cream or a soda made with chocolate ice cream and root beer
Blindfolded: basted egg
Blonde with sand: Coffee with cream and sugar
Bloodhound in the hay: A hot dog with sauerkraut
Blowout patches: pancakes
Blue-plate special: a dish of meat, potato, and vegetable served on a plate (usually blue) sectioned in three parts
Boiled leaves: tea
Bossy in a bowl: beef stew
Bowl of red: a bowl of chili con carne
Bow-wow/bun pup/tube steak/groundhog/Coney Island/Coney Island chicken/Coney Island bloodhound: hot dog
Break a cowboy: Western omelette
Break it and shake it: add egg to a drink
Breath: onion
Bridge/bridge party: four of anything
Bronx vanilla/halitosis: garlic
Brown bellies: baked beans
Bubble dancer: dishwasher
Bucket of cold mud: bowl of chocolate ice cream
Bucket of hail: glass of ice
Bullets/whistleberries/Saturday night: baked beans
Bun pup: hot dog
Burn it and let it swim: a float made with chocolate syrup and ice cream on top
Burn one – put a hamburger on the grill
Burn one, take it through the garden and pin a rose on it: hamburger with lettuce, tomato and onion
Burn the British: toasted English muffin
C.J. Boston: cream cheese and jelly
C.J. White: cream cheese and jelly on white bread
Cackle fruit/cackleberries/hen fruit: eggs
Cackleberries out west: western omelette
Campers: customers who “camp out” at a table, taking it up for an extended amount of time. This causes the servers to lose money because they cannot “turn the table.”
Canned cow: evaporated milk
Cat’s eyes: tapioca
Cats heads and easy diggins: biscuits and gravy
C-board: prepared to take-out (in cardboard)
Check the ice: look at the pretty girl who just came in
Checkerboard: waffle
Chewed with fine breath: hamburger with onions
Chicago: pineapple sundae
Chicks on a raft: eggs on toast
China: rice pudding
Chokies: artichokes
Chopper: a table knife
City juice: water
C.J. Boston: cream cheese and jelly
Clean up the kitchen: hash
Coffee dry: coffee with sugar only
Coffee high and dry: coffee with no cream or sugar or “black”
Coffee high: coffee with cream only (no sugar)
Cops & robbers: donuts and coffee
Cow feed: a salad
Cow paste: butter
Cowboy coffee: coffee made with all chicory
Cowboy Western: a western omelette or sandwich
Cowboy with spurs: western omelette with French fries
Creep: draft beer
Cremate it: toast the bread
Crowd: three of anything
Cup o’ joe: a cup of coffee
Cup of mud: a cup of coffee
Customer service: attractive table
Customer will take a chance/clean up the kitchen/sweep the floor: hash
Deadeye: poached egg
Dish pig: dishwasher
Dog and maggot: cracker and cheese
Dog biscuit: a cracker
Dog soup: water
Don’t cry over it: omit the onions
Double black cow: double-thick chocolate shake
Dough well done with cow to cover: buttered toast
Down: on toast
Drag it through the garden: a hamburger, hotdog, sandwich or similar with all condiments (vegetables) on it
Drag one through Georgia: Coca-Cola with chocolate syrup
Drag one through Wisconsin: serve with cheese (for example, a cheeseburger)
Draw one in the dark: cup of black coffee
Draw one in the dark/flowing Mississippi: black coffee
Draw one/a cup of mud: cup of coffee
Drop two: two poached eggs
Drown the kids: boiled eggs
Dry stack: pancakes without butter
Dry: a hamburger, hotdog, sandwich or similar without butter, mayonnaise or other dressing
Dusty Miller: chocolate pudding, sprinkled with powdered malt
Echo: repeat
Egg o’ Biscuit: biscuit with egg
Eggs up: two eggs fried on one side, unflipped with unbroken yolks
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
Firehouse it: add chili sauce to a dish
First lady: spareribs (based upon the creation of the biblical Eve from Adam’s rib)
Fish eyes or cat’s eyes: tapioca pudding
Flop two: two fried eggs over easy
Flop two, over easy: fried eggs, flipped over carefully, with the yolk very runny
Flop two, over hard: fried eggs, flipped over, with the yolk solid all the way through
Flop two, over medium: fried eggs, flipped over, with the yolk beginning to solidify
Fly cake/roach cake: raisin cake or huckleberry pie
Foreign entanglements: spaghetti
Four on two over easy: two orders of eggs over easy
Frenchman’s delight: pea soup
Frog sticks: French fries
Fry two, let the sun shine: two eggs fried on one side, unflipped with unbroken yolks which are generally runny
GAC : “grilled American cheese sandwich” (from the pronunciation of “GAC;” also called a “jack” or a “Jack Benny” if there’s bacon on it)
GAC Tommy: “grilled American cheese” sandwich with tomato
Gallery: booth
Gentleman will take a chance: Plate of hash
George Eddy: customer who didn’t leave a tip
Georgia pie: peach pie
Give it wings: serve it quickly
Go for a walk: take-out order
Gravel train: sugar bowl
Graveyard stew: milk toast (buttered toast, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, and dropped into a bowl of warm milk)
Groundhog: hot dog
Guess water: soup
Hail: ice
Hatching it: a fried egg on toast with a hole cut out of the center
Heart attack on a rack: biscuits and gravy
Hemorrhage: tomato ketchup
Hen fruit or hen nuts: eggs, sometimes boiled eggs
High and dry: a plain sandwich without butter, mayonnaise, or lettuce
Hoboken special: pineapple soda with chocolate ice cream
Hockey puck: hamburger, well done
Hojack: buttered toast
Hold the grass: sandwich without lettuce
Hold the hail: no ice
Honeymoon salad: lettuce alone
Hope: oatmeal
Hot balls: matzah ball soup
Hot blonde in sand: coffee with cream and sugar
Hot one: bowl of chili con carne
Hot top: hot chocolate
Hounds on an island: franks and beans
Houseboat: banana split
Hug one/squeeze one: glass of orange juice
Ice the rice: rice pudding with ice cream
In the alley: served as a side dish
In the weeds: a waitress or cook who can’t keep up with the tables or orders
Irish turkey: corned beef and cabbage
Jack Benny: cheese with bacon
Jawa/java/Joe: coffee
Jewish round: a bagel
Keep off the grass: no lettuce
Ladybug: fountain man
Leo: lox, eggs and onion, usually served as an omelette (common in New York City)
Let it walk/go for a walk/on wheels/give it shoes: an order to go, a take-out order
Life preservers/sinkers: doughnuts
Lighthouse: salt shaker
Looseners: prunes
Love apples: tomatoes
LTO: lettuce, tomato, onion
Lumber: a toothpick
Machine oil: syrup
Magoo: custard pie
Mama: marmalade
Maiden’s delight: cherries
Make it cry: with onions
Marry: consolidate food in same containers, e.g. pouring ketchup from half-filled bottles into other bottles to make full bottles
Mayo: mayonnaise
Mike and Ike/the twins: salt and pepper shakers
Million on a platter: a plate of baked beans
Mississippi mud/yellow paint: mustard
Moo juice/cow juice/baby juice/Sweet Alice: milk
Mother and child reunion: chicken and egg sandwich
Mouse trap: grilled cheese sandwich
Muddy Moo: chocolate milk
Mully/Bossy in a bowl: beef stew
Mystery in the alley: side order of hash
Nervous pudding: Jello or jelly
No cow: without milk
Noah’s boy: slice of ham (Ham was one of the Biblical Noah’s sons)
Noah’s boy on bread: a ham sandwich
Noah’s boy with Murphy carrying a wreath: ham and potatoes with cabbage
On a rail: fast (as in “Fries, on a rail!”)
On the fly: as soon as possible
On the hoof: any kind of meat, cooked rare
One from the Alps: a Swiss cheese sandwich
One on the city: a glass of water
Paint it red: put ketchup on a sandwich or dish
Pair of drawers: two cups of coffee
Pearl diver: dishwasher
Peel it off the wall: add a leaf of lettuce
Pigs in a blanket: sausages wrapped in pancakes
Pin a rose on it: add onion to a dish
Pittsburgh: something burning, toasted or charred
Plate o’ dicks: a plate of sausages
Pope Benedict: eggs benedict
Put a hat on it: add ice cream
Put out the lights and cry: an order of liver and onions
Quail: Hungarian goulash
Rabbit food: lettuce
Radio sandwich: tuna fish sandwich (“tuna down” or tuna on toast sound like “turn it down,” the command often repeated when the radio is on in the kitchen)
Raft: toast, or when used with burgers, a toasted bun
Run it through the garden: any sandwich, usually a hamburger, with lettuce, tomato and onion added
Sand/gravel/yum-yum: sugar
Schmeer: cream cheese, usually on a bagel
Sea dust: salt
Seaboard: to go
Shake one in the hay: strawberry milkshake
Shingle with a shimmy and a shake: buttered toast with jam or jelly
Shivering hay: strawberry gelatin
Shoot from the south/Atlanta special: Coca-Cola
Shot out of the blue bottle: Bromo-Seltzer
Slab of moo, let him chew it: rare round steak
Sleigh ride special: vanilla pudding
Smear: margarine or butter
Soup jockey: waitress
Splash of red noise: a bowl of tomato soup
Stack/short stack: order of pancakes
Sun kiss/Oh jay (O.J.): orange juice
Sunny-side up: eggs fried without flipping them so the yolk looks just like a sun on white background
Sweep the kitchen/sweepings/clean up the kitchen: a plate of hash
The works: a hamburger, hotdog, sandwich or similar with all condiments on it
Throw it in the mud: add chocolate syrup
To sell: to finish the plate
Tube steak: frankfurter
Twelve alive in a shell: a dozen raw oysters
Two cows, make them cry: two hamburgers with onions
Vermont: maple syrup
Walk a cow through the garden: hamburger with lettuce, tomato and onion
Walking in: a new order just arriving in the kitchen
Walking: to go
Warts: olives
Wax: American cheese
Well-dressed diner: codfish
We’ve got a gambler in the house: hash
Western Coffee: coffee that has been on the range all day
Whiskey: rye bread
Whiskey down: rye toast
White cow: vanilla milkshake
Why bother: decaffeinated coffee with non-fat milk
Winnie Palmer: half sweet tea, half lemonade
Wreath: cabbage
Wreck ‘em: scrambled eggs
Yellow paint: mustard
Yesterday, today, and forever: hash
Yum-yum/sand: sugar
Zeppelin: sausage
Zeppelins in a fog: sausages and mashed potatoe