Eighty-Six (86'd)
To eighty-six something is to pull it from service. Most often it is a dish the kitchen has run out of, announced to the floor so servers stop selling it; occasionally it is a guest who is no longer welcome. The eighty-six list changes through the night as stations run down.
An eighty-six travels faster than any other piece of information in a restaurant, because every minute it goes unknown is another table being sold something it cannot have. Kitchens call it across the pass, servers repeat it back, and most point-of-sale systems can mark the item unavailable so it stops appearing as an option.
The expensive version is the one caught late. A shortage found at line check goes on the board before doors open and the floor sells around it all night. The same shortage found at 8:40pm arrives as a server walking back to a table to explain that the halibut they just ordered no longer exists.
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