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In the early days of ice cream parlours and soda fountains, soda jerks had
their own lingo; for instance, "cow juice" was fountain-ese for a glass of milk.
Well, Farrell's had its own lingo as well.
D.T. 32 - Dirty table #32, cue for the busboys
to clean the table. When they complete their task, they would call "32 clear",
meaning the table was ready to reseat.
L.C. - Line Check, means customers have entered the parlour and need to be seated.
Wheels for one - cut six banana wheels for a sundae.
Side of gold - souffle cup of hot butterscotch for the Golddigger sundae.
OTR - "on the run", instructs either kitchen or fountain to expedite a
particular order.
Coffee Skate - when a server or manager walks the dining room with the
coffee pots, filling guests cups.
Add two - place two hamburger patties on the grill.
Crack a whip - prepare a fresh can of whipped cream for dispensing. Farrell's
originally bottled its own whipped cream (adding a little simple syrup to
sweeten the cream); after filling the dispensing bottle and screwing on the
nozzle, the bottle could be stored, unpressurized, until it was needed. A small
canister of nitrous oxide would be injected, or "cracked", into the dispenser.
Even after Farrell's changed to pre-canned whipped cream, the term stuck, even
though it basically meant "retrieve a new can of whipped cream".
Split one - split and peel a banana for a banana split.
Float it - add ice cream to the root beer float. Other fountains placed ice
cream in the bottom of the glass and poured root beer over it. This would cause
the root beer to foam excessively and by the time the customer got it the soda
would be nearly flat. Farrell's, on the other hand, would put the soda in the
glass first, and would add the ice cream at the last second before delivering it
to the customer. When properly floated, the root beer will not foam over, and
the customer will not have a flat soda. The server would give the command to
"float it" when he/she was ready to deliver it to the table.
W.O. - walk-out, a customer (or table) that leaves without ordering.
H.C. 21- hand clear table 21; cues the server that there are empty
dishes in front of the customers that need to be removed.
Fountain Hit - often someone at a table will order from the kitchen
while the others order sundaes off the fountain menu. Food takes longer to
prepare than ice cream dishes, but the goal is to serve both at the same time so
everyone at the table can eat at the same time. When the food is nearly ready,
the kitchen would call a "fountain hit" on the ticket. This cued the fountain
staff to pull the waiting ticket and prepare the sundaes.
Change the cow - replace the empty 5-gallon milk dispenser.
Tiger Beats - a table or group of young teenagers. Also called "Space
Cadets".
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