Slang of the Restaurants (1897)

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   It appears that NYU now has the historical LOS ANGELES TIMES.  No one knows about these things--they just appear.  It's not listed under "new databases."
   For some reason, the page didn't come up on the NYU Dell computers, but did on this NYU  iMAC...Sorry in advance for typing mistakes.

  9 April 1897, LOS ANGELES TIMES, pg. 5:
_SLANG OF THE RESTAURANTS._
_Some of the Fancy Names Given to_
      _Common Dishes._
   (Kansas City Star:)  The time when restaurant slang was considered the proper thing has almost passed and now there are few restaurants in the world where one can have his appetite tested by the mere act of the repetition of his order to the cook.  Ten years ago, a man entering such restaurants on the Bowery as Boss Tweed's, Tom Fish's or "Beefsteak John's" and having any respect for his future appetite or "grub thirst," as it was called them, generally wore his ear muffs.
   "This slang runs from 'three links of the Atlantic cable' (meaning sausage,) to 'San Francisco bay, one small boat half sunk' (cocktail,) and back again," said a "traveling hash," who has been in the business about twelve years.
   "I've been all over the country, and I knew Steve Brodie when he was a baby.  This business ain't what it used to be, though.  People are more particular nowadays.  The old slang is passing away, and few even remember what it is."
   Just then a customer entered, sat down at the table and gave his order, which was repeated to the cook by this brawny Bowery lad.
   "Wake up," he cried, "one brown stone front, side of a funeral; two Irish lemons with all clothes on; plate of punk; an easy smear of axle grease and draw one in the dark, cap it all off with a farmer's alliance."
   This was all said in one breath.  After delivering himself of it, the waiter resumed his conversation:
   "Do you know what it wanted?" he asked.  "Well, I'll tell you.  He wanted a piece of beefsteak, a small order of pork chops, two baked potatoes, a plate o' bread and butter, a cup o' coffee and a piece of pumpkin pie."
   This slang, he explained, was once very popular among a certain class of restaurants throughout the country, but since the Parkhurst society's work in the Bowery it has gone completely out of vogue, save in one or two cities in the mining regions in the West.  Most of the slang phrases are appropriate to the dishes, yet many have little or no connection.  A list of staple orders may prove of value in case one should want to know what one is getting:
   "Red, white and blue"--corn beef hash.
   "Summer time"--oat meal.
   "Brass band with leader"--pork and beans.
   "Sinkers"--doughnuts.
   "A stack of browns"--hot cakes.
   "Mid ocean"--boiled eggs.
   "A mystery"--hash.
   "White wings, sunny side up"--fried eggs.
   "Packing-house quail"--spare ribs.
   "Graveyard poultice"--milk toast.
   "Three links of Atlantic cable"--link sausage.
   "Shipwreck"--scrambled eggs.

(Who's Steve Brodie?--ed., in jest)