Just an aside. I worked well over 20 years in food service as a second job. I don’t think “86” is a widespread term in food service, there are some of us that would know what you meant, but not many. If I had to guess, I would guess its origins were with the Trucking industry, specifically CB/shortwave radio operators since they abbreviated a TON of phrases with numbers.
I was mostly curious and love random trivia. So I looked it up and apparently it has a wiki page. It did actually originate in the restaurant/bar scene but way back in the 1920’s.
Just an aside. I worked well over 20 years in food service as a second job. I don’t think “86” is a widespread term in food service, there are some of us that would know what you meant, but not many. If I had to guess, I would guess its origins were with the Trucking industry, specifically CB/shortwave radio operators since they abbreviated a TON of phrases with numbers.
I was mostly curious and love random trivia. So I looked it up and apparently it has a wiki page. It did actually originate in the restaurant/bar scene but way back in the 1920’s.
That explains it. I only knew the term because of a few of the old heads using it when I started in the mid '90s.