"blue plate special"

[Gerald Cohen]

    Here is reference material for "blue plate": Barry Popik and
Gerald Cohen: "Material For The Study of Hash-House Lingo." _Comments
on Etymology_, vol. 31, no. 7, April 2002, pp. 2-28. On pp. 9-11 we
present the article "Quick Lunchplaces Have Own Vernacular," from
_The Restaurant Man_, January 1929,
  p. 50, col. 3. This article (as well as all others mentioned in the
CoE issue) was spotted by Barry Popik); afterwards we add a glossary
of the terms used in the _Restaurant Man_ item.

    Two main conclusions emerge from this treatment.  Barry antedated
"blue plate" to 1929 (from OED's 1945; but Fred Shapiro in his recent
ads-l posting pushes the first date back to 1926. And "blue plate"
may derive from humble origins in hash house slang:

     Here now is the glossary item mentioned above:

blue plate -- [14] 'A "blue plate" is the label given a special daily
combination of meat or fish, potatoes and vegetables, sold at a
special price, and is ordered with the word, "Blue plate."'-- B.
Popik: This antedates OED2's earliest attestation of 1945; OED2
presents:
        1945 S. LEWIS C. Timberlane (1946) xix. 112 They were taking
the     *Blue Plate Dinner.
        1952 AUDEN Nones 27 Having finished the Blue-plate Special
And     reached the coffee stage.
        1961 WEBSTER Blue Plate. 1. A restaurant dinner plate divided
into    compartments for serving several kinds of food as a single
order. 2. A     main course (as of meat and vegetable) served as a
single menu item.

        [B. Popik]: Here are two more 1929 mentions of 'Blue Plate":
        April 1929, The Restaurant Man, p. 19 photo caption--Blue
Plate   Restaurant at Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
        April 1929, The Restaurant Man, p. 28, col. 2: '"Blue Plate"
Wins    Popularity,' by John F. Toedtman
        'A PLEASING innovation in restaurant service which is meeting
with    popular approval is the self-serve "Blue Plate Luncheon" each
noon and        evening at the Y.M.C.A. Cafeteria, Dayton. ...'



>At 5:24 PM +0100 9/21/02, Michael Quinion wrote:
>Fred Shapiro's message today was timely, as rather a lot of people
>have suddenly started to ask me where the phrase comes from (is it in
>a quiz somewhere this week, or what?).
>
>The questions pose some difficulties, because it's astonishing the
>number of reference books I've consulted today that don't mention it.
>(And there doesn't seem to be anything about it in the ADS-L archives
>apart from recent antedatings.)
>
>My understanding is that it was an inexpensive set meal, a sort of
>"plat du jour", served on a blue plate divided into sections for each
>part of the meal. Roughly (without the blue plate) what was once
>called a "shilling ordinary" in Britain. Am I right?
>
>Any supporting information would be helpful in aiding me to fill a
>couple of hundred words of deathless prose!
>--
>Michael Quinion


>At 10:00 PM -0400 9/20/02, Fred Shapiro wrote:
>Since Barry is in Shangri-La somewhere, someone has to keep up the food
>antedatings.  The OED, as would not surprise Barry, doesn't do too well on
>"blue plate special."  Its first use is dated 1961, but Damon Runyon
>published a book with that title in 1934.  Still earlier is the following
>from Barry's favorite newspaper:
>
>1926 _N.Y. Times_ 27 May 23  (adv't) THE FAMOUS OLD SEA GRILL LOBSTER AND
>CHOP HOUSE ... BLUE PLATE SPECIALS.
>
>Fred Shapiro