"Dirty Spoon" (1866, 1879, 1899); "gazebu", "mutt-head" (1899)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

 From ProQuest.

Here is an early example of "Dirty Spoon" used like "Greasy Spoon" as the
(presumably imaginary) name of a low-class restaurant. In the same piece
there are other slang items, including "gazebu" presumably = "gazebo",
"mutt-head" (1941 in HDAS) presumably = "muttonhead".

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_Washington Post_, 16 April 1899: p. 24:

<<" .... Who went kiting' [sic] out t' th' track last Saturday with a whole
lot o' friends' dust just f'r the sake o' blowin' it on one o' the greatest
runners in training, the mare Imp, t' see her beat a furlong by a 50 t' 1
crab, an' th' sensation plug Imp not one, two, three, in a field o' five?
Why, you, you mutt-head, an' the likes of you.' [sic] / " .... After the
show I walks down t' th' Dirty Spoon restaurant with one o' my two-bit
pieces in my mitt t' git some pork chops, fried potatoes, an' a cup o'
coffee, an' on my way there I seen these wise gazebus o' bookies step out
o' calashes and walk into th' crack eatin' joint o' town. ....">>

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Here is "Dirty Spoon" as the name of some sort of establishment, from 1866:

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_New York Times_, 26 Feb. 1866: p. 8:

<<Last evening, at about 10 1/2 o'clock, Officer OATES, of the Fourth
Precinct, discovered a fire bursting out through the window of the second
floor of the two-story frame building No. 59 Cherry-street, formerly
enjoying the name of "The Dirty Spoon," but latterly occupied by TIERNAN &
CO., dealer in cottons, ....>>

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And another instance:

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_New York Times_, 23 May 1879: p. 8:

<<Capt. Petty and a squad of his officers had early in the morning raided a
low lodging-house in Oliver-street, kept by Mrs. Bridget Donnelly, and
known as "The Dirty Spoon.">>

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-- Doug Wilson