Even if he had written “86 the cherries” they probably never heard that term. I’m about to be 40 and I only know it from Loony Tunes and other cartoons stereotyping a 1920’s mobster.
What 86 has todo with “no”?
I’ve heard “86” as slang for eliminate/remove but I don’t know where it comes from, and I would never use it if I thought it could be confused with a quantity.
It sounds like something a stereotypical Chicago mobster might say, so I’d probably not use that slang anyway.
80 miles; 6 feet.
Definitely should have written “no cherries,” but it is a common restaurant industry term in the US.
Interestingly enough, you can also 86 a person. This means they’re not allowed to come back to the bar/restaurant/etc…
You can also 68 something if it becomes available again, like a reverse 86. For instance: the kitchen runs out of Brussels sprouts and 86’s them, but someone completes an emergency produce run to the local market and preps enough for the rest of the night, so now they’re 68.
Interestingly enough, you can also 86 a person. This means they’re not allowed to come back to the bar/restaurant/etc…
Sounds like a murder/assassination euphemism.
I’ve heard of the term to “deep six” someone.
Just to throw it out there, 86 is also used in the film industry (at least in LA) meaning to cancel or get rid of something. It’s very widely used across the industry. I don’t know of any other slang that is shared between restaurants and film though.
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.
“Cut!”
Never heard of this in the UK, just strike/kill. Maybe it’s a US thing.
I don’t really care for what, if you are requesting something from someone you don’t know in a way that’s intentionally stupid or roundabout, you need to be prepared to get exactly what you asked for.
Fast food doubly so, they give no shits. Ask for a burger but hold the burger? Expect an empty wrapper.
Had a friend who worked in a pizza store have someone order at pizza with chilli as an ingredient, “how hot do you want it?”, customer said “11/10”. They were very generous with the chilli flakes. Customer then called back to complain it was too hot!
I want to go to that pizza shop.
My whole life I’ve asked for things to be as hot as possible only to always be disappointed.
Then on a whim I entered my states chilli eating competition and won.
Then came 5th in all of Australia.
So I don’t think it’s the restaurants fault that I don’t find my food hot enough haha
Technically correct, which is the best kind of correct.
tell me about it! i ordered a cherry π and received three and some bits of cherries instead!
that’s totes the fault of the guy who can’t understand what i mean when i’m trying to be esoteric!
I’m a bit of an OCD logic nerd. When I eat something, I need to immediately gulp down another 7 otherwise I could never have ate them.
Hey man, I’m sorry… If they handed you a measurable quantity of cherries then you didn’t get what you asked for.
Nah they just handed them 3&1/7 cherries. It’s a reasonable approximation
Yeah, that’s on the customer. If you write that you want a bunch of fuckin cherries then you’re getting a bunch of fuckin cherries. Now go eat the pile of cherries you ordered.
Honestly I’d work under the assumption that restaurant employees knew what “86” meant. I’d still prob just write “no cherries” lol but the assumption isn’t that crazy. It’s common restaurant lingo.
Edit: people that never worked in a restaurant downvoting me “I NEVER HEARD OF NO 86, DOWNVOTED FOR SHARING AN ANECDOTE” lol this site is cancer. There’s a reason lemmy will never take off, and it’s the user base
You’re being downvoted because you’re just flat-out wrong.
“86” doesn’t mean “hold this item”, it means the kitchen is out of that item.
So no, it wouldn’t make sense even to people that know restaurant lingo.
I worked at a fast food joint for a while and never heard of 86 referring to something being out. We never even used numbers as codes for anything in the first place and I don’t know why we would when everybody is working in such close quarters with one another.
least toxic person on the internet
Downvotes mean nothing here. You dont have to get upset. Writing 86 cherries when you mean no cherries on a piece of paper with no context is a dumbass thing to do. Write what you mean and be concise. Nobody writes down the number 86 when they mean no. The separation from the vocal component is enough to be confusing.
nobody writes down the number
um the guy in this post CLEARLY did so. i just proved you wrong pal
downvotes here mean exactly as much as they mean anywhere else
AND FOR THE 9TH TIME, I wouldn’t write “86” when I meant “no”, but expecting restaurant workers to know restaurant lingo isn’t some massive stretch. He’s not speaking Latin. the bigger dumbass is 100% the person who actually put 86 cherries into a milkshake.
Restaurant lingo isn’t fast food lingo ya dolt.
It’s common resturant lingo but fast food is completely different from resturant work. Also “86” literally has the same number of characters as “no”. They could have put down “no cherries” with the exact same ease. They decided to play a stupid game so they won a stupid prize, a stupid amount of cherries.
You’re downvoted because dude. Just no…
“86 cherries” means eighty six cherries, “no cherries” means no cherries… If people learnt to communicate clearly this world would be a better place
Edit: also this has nothing to do with Lemmy being “cancer”? Your argument is poor
It’s even the same amount of characters 🤦
In my 30s, and while I’ve heard “let’s 86 the _____” numerous times, I honestly wouldn’t have connected that to “86 cherries” on an order.
I’ve worked in food, fast and fancy, and nobody would say “86 cherries” instead of “no cherries”. Clarity is conducive to a smoothly flowing kitchen.
As someone who’s worked a few fast food jobs, no, I’d have no fucking clue what is meant by that. Piss and cry in your edit all you want.
“I NEVER HEARDA 86, DOWNVOTED CAUSE IM FUCKIN DUMB”
I’m not sure how never having learned about 86 as I’ve worked makes me dumb. Besides that, I thought Lemmy wasn’t gonna take off? You can delete your account any time you want. You don’t make it easy on yourself by acting like a baby.
Bro these are high schoolers working fast food
It is absolutely common restaurant lingo. I can use it with anyone I know from restaurants seamlessly.
That said, fast food work is a different subculture.
But wouldn’t the common restaurant lingo be “86 THE cherries?”
86 is a verb. To 86 something is to exclude it. But 86 alone is a number like any other. Just as 50 alone isn’t pronounced “five-oh” and doesn’t mean the Hawaii State Police. If I said “I’m 50,” you’d assume it’s my age, not my profession.
If I said, “That’s the shit!” I’d mean the opposite of “That’s shit!”
Mileage varies. I’ve seen “86 [thing]” written on whiteboards more often than not, grammatically speaking.
Also, a single cherry is the norm, perched decoratively atop the whipped cream. So “86 the cherry” would have been clear, and they could maybe get away with “86 cherry” according to you, but “86 cherries” might as well be “69 cherries.” You wouldn’t expect that to mean mutual oral sex.
You’re right, that would have been the “correct” way, with the “the.” When spoken it’s almost always said, or in the past tense like “cherries are 86’d.”
Of course, “no cherry” is leagues superior when you’re the customer, I mean really. He was just asking for a high ass employee who fully knew to just do it because they think it’s absolutely hilarious (and that would have been the right move lol.)
The other commenter is also right, the whiteboards in the kitchen always leave out the “the,” but that is a shorthand on a shorthand. They also probably write like “86 B.O” for “We are currently out of black olives,” and you don’t want to know how they abbreviate Jalapeños. The whiteboard is not a reliable source in that respect, it’s almost code, or like a Chef’s Cant.
Yeah, I’ve never once heard it when I worked fast food, only full service
You’ve done both? That’s rough, buddy.
What does 86 mean?
It’s usually used in the context of a restaurant kitchen. Like if they run out of olives they would yell eighty-six olives. So don’t sell anything with olives without warning and don’t go looking for them.
To add, that’s the only context I’ve ever heard it used in when working in restaurants (to convey that we can’t sell or offer anymore of a thing). If someone order a lasagna with no olives, no one will say “lasagna, 86 olives”.
Who makes Lasagna with olives? And WHY DOESN’T IT SOUND ALL THAT BAD?
Worked in an italian restaurant for a few years. IIRC our lasagna generally had pork sausage, yellow squash, onions, bell peppers, black olives and a bunch of the usual cheeses. Probably had some other veggies too but it’s been a while since I worked there.
It was good lasagna.
I think I should get more creative with my lasagna, those sound like good additions!
ive literally never heard of that stupid slang in my entire life
I’m 46 and it’s the first time I hear it. I would probably ask a manager what to do as 86 cherries is a lot but my AuDHD is ok with counting exactly 86 cherries lol
I’m 33 and I understood, probably more regional than anything
I’m guessing you’ve never worked in a restaurant? Like I said, in my experience it’s common in the industry
Yeah, but a fast food restaurant run by teenagers is not synonymous with a kitchen full of cooks lead by a chef.
Working in fast food is pretty different from full restaurants. I worked fast food first, never heard the term until I started waiting tables a few years later. In fast food, there’s not as much of a chain of communication that requires pass phrases to get info across quickly. Just one kid with an order terminal and another kid assembling the order as it was entered.
All of that aside, if I hear someone use that term IRL, it does tend to sound pretentious because you’re basically using jargon outside of its typical area of use and expecting everyone to know wtf you’re talking about. It’s almost like you want someone to ask, so you can be like “you don’t kNoW???”
Probably people don’t mean to come off that way, but that is the vibe I catch most of the time.
How is “86 the cherries” quicker than saying “no cherries”? Sounds like 4 times as long.
For context, I never worked in a restaurant and I just learned that jargon now.
In loud environments “lengthening” things makes sense, especially with sudden noises. “Spaghetti, eig-CLANG-x olives” is easier to understand than “Spaghetti, CLANG olives”.
It basically sidesteps any conversation about what you mean. If you said to the line or to your fellow waiters “no cherries” that wouldn’t make any sense. Like, in what context would they guess you meant that? You’d at the very least have to say “we have no more cherries”, which is much longer than saying “86 cherries”.
If you mean in the context of the OP, though, then yes I completely agree, the customer was being extra and not actually shortening what they were trying to say.
you’re basically using jargon outside of its typical area of use and expecting everyone to know wtf you’re talking about
I mean, the guy who used the restaurant term was giving directions directly to a restaurant.
Like I said, I would personally just say “no cherries”, but messaging restaurant lingo to a restaurant isn’t some crazy reach. Not enough to warrant the original comment that I responded to, basically saying “fuck that guy, eat your fuckin cherries”.
I mean, the guy who used the restaurant term was giving directions directly to a restaurant.
A “fast food joint” is not a restaurant in that sense. Nobody with any common sense would expect a bunch of kids working their (likely) first job for spending money to be up on, or care about, restaurant jargon.
So many people in here saying teenagers. It’s often older people who work these shit minimum wage jobs. How could McDonald’s be open at noon on a Wednesday if it was being run by a bunch of high school kids?
Didn’t mean to single you out really it’s just the fourth time in this thread I saw someone say fast food is a bunch of kids. It’s really fucking poor adults. Trust me I was one.
TIL, cool
But, yeah, I would read it as pretentious little thing even if I knew the lingo. Honestly I approve the person getting 86 cherries. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Sorry dog I worked in food service as a teenager and didn’t learn what 86ing was until I heard Gordon Ramsay say it in an episode of kitchen nightmares.
Here’s where the ‘86’ came from.
Back in the day, there was a speakeasy with two doors. The entry door was through a small courtyard and the exit door was onto the street. If you knocked on the street door, which had the address on it, you couldn’t get in. If you got obnoxious, you’d be thrown out the street door. That door had an ‘86’ on it.
I have never heard of either 86 nor this speakeasy. What a cool thing to learn! Thanks for sharing this historic nugget!
Edit, autocorrect on grammar
86 your account bud
Never heard of it so I had to look
https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/eighty-six-meaning-origin
Eighty-six is slang meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of,” or “to refuse service to.” It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang meaning that an item was sold out. There is varying anecdotal evidence about why the term eighty-six was used, but the most common theory is that it is rhyming slang for nix.
I heard/read years ago “86ing” came from the old west referring to killing somebody. You’d take them “80 miles out” and bury them “6 feet deep.”
This right here is my truth. If 80 miles out & 6 feet deep is wrong, than I don’t wanna be right. Always loved this expression and origin story.
Yeah 86 doesn’t really mean to get rid of something. At least in my time in the restaurant industry I never heard it used that way. It just means that we were out of something.
That was my experience as well. Though we would also refer to a banned customer as “86’d.”
Same meaning in my experience. The patron is kicked out. 86’d is the past tense. ‘they have been 86’d’
You no longer have any of that product, ingredient, or in this case customer.
“86 the chef special” == get rid of it [from the menu]
No, “86 the chef special” means 'kitchen is out of chef special.
Yes, your task is to remove it from the menu.
But you aren’t 86ing it.
You’re marking it as 86’d because the quantity is below minimum threshold (usually zero).
str 86;str itmTo86;86='get rid of';info(strFmt('%1 %2',86,itmTo86));(This won’t actually work, since you can’t assign ints as variables, but whatever. It was fun)
In a workshop environment I’ve heard “86 it” to mean “get rid of it.” synonymous with “shitcan it.”
And that’s the joke behind Agent 86’s number on Get Smart. He’s a bad agent, and someone should have gotten rid of him.
There’s a timely reference. Get Smart: In Color.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…Okay!”
Was this customer a 1930’s gangster?
Maybe!
But this is still fairly common shorthand for waiters.
Universal expression in the hospitality industry
Why would 86 mean none?
86 is a slang term that means to get rid of something. See the Green Day song ‘86’ as an example. The origin is from a really long time ago, when it meant a menu item at restaurants was no longer available.
It’s rhyming slang with ‘nix’ which is Latin, and means to nullify or cancel. Because there layers of meaning hidden in english, Latin, and arabic numbers is not possible to be confusing.
And not to be confused with ‘deep 6’ which means to destroy, kill orr bury something 6 feet deep.
Instructing kitchen to deep 6 the cherries, the line cooks gonna need a gun and a shovel.
It still means that and is still used in that capacity at restaurants.
Good to know; I only knew that usage from movies and whatnot, had no idea it was still used like that!
Why would 86 mean none?
I like the theory that it’s like Cockney rhyming slang—eight-six, nix.
Like what Don Cheadle’s character do in Ocean’s Eleven.
That portrayal was so bad that the leading theory is his character was actually an American faking it
We probably would’ve dragged it at the bar I work at and not serve cherries for the rest of the night lol
Jokes on you, I just got a week supply of cherries.
