The customer is always right - eviltoast
  • BarbudoGrande@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    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…

    • lemonmelon@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      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.

    • T156@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      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.

  • Masta_Chief@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      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.

      • JordanZ@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        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.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • Oaksey@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      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!

      • Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone
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        18 hours ago

        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

  • Fosheze@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      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

      • null@slrpnk.net
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        1 day ago

        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.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        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.

        • BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee
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          2 days ago

          nobody writes down the number

          um the guy in this post CLEARLY did so. i just proved you wrong pal

        • Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          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.

      • Live Your Lives@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        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.

      • Fosheze@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        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.

      • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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        2 days ago

        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.

      • darkstar@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        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

      • Wolfram@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        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.

          • Wolfram@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            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.

      • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        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.

        • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          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!”

          • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Mileage varies. I’ve seen “86 [thing]” written on whiteboards more often than not, grammatically speaking.

            • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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              2 days ago

              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.

              • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                2 days ago

                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.

        • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          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.

          • fishbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 day ago

            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”.

              • fishbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                1 day ago

                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.

      • VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        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

        • Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I’m guessing you’ve never worked in a restaurant? Like I said, in my experience it’s common in the industry

          • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Yeah, but a fast food restaurant run by teenagers is not synonymous with a kitchen full of cooks lead by a chef.

          • iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            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.

            • Danquebec@sh.itjust.works
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              1 day ago

              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.

              • Krzd@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                In loud environments “lengthening” things makes sense, especially with sudden noises. “Spaghetti, eig-CLANG-x olives” is easier to understand than “Spaghetti, CLANG olives”.

              • iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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                1 day ago

                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.

            • Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              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”.

              • Null User Object@programming.dev
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                2 days ago

                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.

                • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  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.

      • Mr. Satan@monyet.cc
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        2 days ago

        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.

      • zaph@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        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.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        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.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumley's

        • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
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          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

  • ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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!

    • modeler@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      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.

    • BluesF@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Hey man, I’m sorry… If they handed you a measurable quantity of cherries then you didn’t get what you asked for.

    • StrongHorseWeakNeigh@lemmy.world
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      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.

      • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        That was my experience as well. Though we would also refer to a banned customer as “86’d.”

        • CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          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.

        • CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.world
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          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).

        • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
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          2 days ago

          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)

    • xXSirDanglesXx@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      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.”

      • RinseDrizzle@midwest.social
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        14 hours ago

        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.

    • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
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      2 days ago

      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.

      • Agent641@lemmy.world
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        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.

    • Boxscape@lemmy.sdf.org
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      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.

      • GiveOver@feddit.uk
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        That portrayal was so bad that the leading theory is his character was actually an American faking it

  • Fleur_@lemm.ee
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    We probably would’ve dragged it at the bar I work at and not serve cherries for the rest of the night lol