Diner Servers! I need your help!

October 11, 2024 10:59 AM

Hi! My partner and I are big diner people and I'm trying to put together a little gift for him. I want to write out our diner order but I'd love for it to be as authentic as possible. How would you write the following order in diner shorthand: Coffee Sausage, egg & cheese Chocolate milk Short stack pancakes Bonus if you can share a picture of this written on a diner "guest check" Thank you in advance! <3
posted by mrk021 to Society & Culture (10 answers total)

"sausage egg and cheese"

Are you wanting that as a sandwich: bread? english muffin? No?
How do you want those eggs?
American cheese?
Sausage links or patty?
posted by droomoord at 11:06 AM on October 11 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: droomoord: sausage egg and cheese sandwich - on a roll, fried egg, cheddar, sausage patty :)
posted by mrk021 at 11:12 AM on October 11

Are you wanting old diner slang?

logs (or a couple pigs or Zeppelins) and cackleberries with wax (or drag one through Wisconsin) on a brick (cremate it--toasted)

or Adam and Eve on a log, wax and wreck 'em (scrambled) let the sun shine (over easy) or drown the kids (boiled) on a cookie/rack

joe, java, mud, dirty/murky water, belly warmer (in the dark--black or with cow/make it blonde/50-50--serve with cream)

dirty moo or cold mud and blowout patches (or flapjacks) in the alley (motor oil--syrup) (and grease it/axle grease/cow paste--with butter)
posted by BlueHorse at 12:42 PM on October 11 [7 favorites]

Sorry, took me a while to put it together and I called an old grandma waitress I know.
Was fun
posted by BlueHorse at 12:43 PM on October 11 [1 favorite]

Slang was never actually used in the diners I worked at.

Every server I worked with had their own shorthand so it generally varies from person to person. Before POS (Point Of Sale but you can guess what we call them) systems we had to make sure the kitchen could read our tickets but now you just have to make notes for yourself and then enter it into the system.

If I took your order it would be:

egg sammy
fried
saus
ched
roll

short cakes
choc milk
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 12:45 PM on October 11 [2 favorites]

Ohh also I would want to know if the egg was fried sunny side up or over easy/medium/hard? And then note it as such:

sunny
easy
over med
hard
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 12:49 PM on October 11 [1 favorite]

I agree with RobinofFrocksley - the diners I worked at didn't use slang, it was on the waitstaff to come up with shorthand that was both fast to write *and* understandable to the folks on the line.

It's also really menu-dependent - For example, the diners I worked at didn't have egg sandwiches, and the only thing you could get a short stack of was pancakes. But assuming there was an egg sandwich, it would probably always be a sausage patty (because links don't work well on a sandwich), so I'd write something like:

caf
choc mlk
--
fried egg on roll w/ched & saus
short stack

[Gap in the middle because I was responsible for beverages, kitchen for food. "Caf" assumes hi-test; I'd write a D and circle it if decaf]
posted by okayokayigive at 1:44 PM on October 11 [1 favorite]

Also, if you have a waitperson that you see regularly at your favorite diner and can swing by, there's a chance they'd happily do this for you on one of their actual checks.
posted by okayokayigive at 1:46 PM on October 11 [4 favorites]

At the top I'd write

SAND< (with the following more alongside than below)

ROLL
OH (for over hard, unless you wanted it OM, OE, or sunny)
SAUS PAT
CHED

1/2 PAN




CHOC MILK
COF (beverages at the bottom because the cook does not care, that's my job)
posted by droomoord at 3:24 PM on October 11 [1 favorite]

Yeah - droomoord is closest to mine as well. I had a lot of orders that looked like this.

MELT
TURK / CKN
[W / WW / R / MUF] (White, Whole Wheat, Rye?)
[Ched / Sw / Am] (Cheddar, Swiss...)
[FF / SAL - ital / SAL - blch]

Or

CKN MELT - W Ched - + let & tom
SAL (ital)

Since we were a lunch place, C was "coke" for me and D was "diet coke," but I'm sure if I were at a diner, C would be coffee vs. D for decaf.

Agree with the 1/2 PAN.

Here's a link you might like: https://www.reddit.com/r/Serverlife/comments/1bfcr3m/what_does_your_docket_book_look_like/
posted by slidell at 11:33 PM on October 11