Restaurant Slang (1883. 1886)

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month after all.
   I searched for articles on restaurant slang.


   8 November 1883, HAWK EYE (Burlington, Iowa), pg. 3, col. 3:
   "Sleeve buttons," according to the _Star_, is the New York restaurant
waiter's slang for codfish balls.  "One summer," calls for oat meal and milk; "two
on other," is legal tender for two fried eggs; "stars and stripes" means
plate of pork and beans; "leather and bake" is liver and bacon and "diamonds"
means meat pies.

   22 November 1886, MARION DAILY STAR (Marion, OH), pg. 3, col. 3:
_LINGO OF A CHEAP RESTAURANT._
_"Draw One," "Six on the Griddle,"_
   _and Other Favorite Synonyms._
   The waiters in one of Chicago's many cheap restaurants were astonished and
nonplussed the other day when a stranger entered and called for "boot leg and
sinkers."  After repeating his order tow or three times, and observing that
none of the waiters could catch on, the stranger, a New Yorker, translated his
language into plain "coffee and doughnuts."  It is not often that the Chicago
waiter can be knocked out on restaurant slang.  He knows a trick or two of
that sort himself.  For instance, "Hard on the Injun!" bawled across the room, is
a notification to the server that Indian pudding with hard sauce is wanted.
"Draw one," heard every minute of the day, means "a cup of coffee."  "Draw
no," is coffee without milk.  "Six on the griddle" is a fair abbreviation of half
a dozen fried oysters.  "Ham and turn 'em over," means that the customer
wishes ham and eggs, and that the latter shall be fried on both sides.  "Drop
three" in the waiters' vocabulary indicates an order for poached eggs.  A wag of a
waiter in a South Clark street grub shop amuses customers who call for hard
boiled eggs by shouting an order to the cook:
   "Three--four fifty-nine!"
   Which means that three eggs are to be boiled four minutes and fifty-nine
seconds.
   "One on," usually brings an oyster stew, while "s'line mejum" is only
"sirloin medium" slightly slurred in the pronunciation.  "Buck up" is buckwheat
cakes.  "Three up and nine to come" is the lingo for batter cakes.  "Brown the
buck and a come along" means buckwheat cakes and coffee.  "Bean in the bowl" is
the alternative and rhythmic formula for bean soup.  "Tommy in the bowl"
means one bowl of tomato soup; "bull you, bowl up," is beef soup, while "P, yank
one" is good for pea soup, and "somee" for vermicelli.
   Pork and beans are sometimes called for as "stars and stripes," but the
more common formula in Chicago is "mut, up one."  In some of the restaurants on
State street they call for pork and beans with "an Archer avenue comin' on the
run."  Corn bread is "Corn Johnny," or "brown the Jack."  Plum pudding is
"plum up," or "plum Jo."  "T. O. K." is a sure call for tapioca pudding.  "Cash
on delivery," means codfish, and "corn for the neighbor" is corned beef.  In
the better class of restaurants "a brown stone front" means porterhouse steak,
while "double brown stone" is porterhouse for two.--Chicago Herald.