What Does 86 Mean in a Restaurant? Plus the Kitchen Slang Every New Hire Should Know

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In a restaurant, 86 means you're out. When the kitchen calls "86 short rib," the short rib is gone for the night, servers stop selling it, and somebody updates the POS. That's the short answer to what does 86 mean, and it's the one you'll hear on every line in the country.

The longer answer is that 86 is one word in a whole language. Kitchens run on short, loud calls because there's no time for full sentences when twelve tickets are on the rail. New hires who don't know that language spend their first weeks a step behind, guessing at what "all day," "behind" and "on the fly" mean while everyone around them is moving.

Below is what 86 means and where it might come from, how to 86 an item without chaos on the floor, and a printable kitchen slang glossary you can hand every new hire on day one.

What Does 86 Mean?

86 gets used three ways, and the first one covers about 90% of what you'll hear.

• We're out of it. "86 the halibut." The item is sold out or unavailable for the rest of the shift. This is the everyday meaning.
• Take it off. "86 the onions on table 12." Remove an ingredient or item from an order. Some kitchens use it this way, some don't, so it's worth being clear about which one your kitchen means.
• Cut them off. "Table 9 is 86'd." A guest is cut off at the bar or asked to leave, and sometimes not welcome back. Bar staff use this one most.

The past tense is 86'd ("the brisket is 86'd"), and the opposite is that an item has come back: more was prepped, and it's available again. A good kitchen calls both out loud.

Where 86 Comes From

Nobody knows for sure, and anyone who tells you the origin with total confidence is repeating folklore. The theories you'll hear most often:

• Rhyming slang for "nix." Eighty-six rhymes with nix, as in "nix that," meaning cancel it.
• Old lunch-counter codes. Diners and soda fountains once used number codes for common calls, and 86 is said to have been the code for "we're out."
• Chumley's in New York City. A former speakeasy at 86 Bedford Street, where the story goes that patrons were told to "86 it" out the Bedford Street door when a raid was coming.

The Chumley's story is the most fun, and the least provable. For running a kitchen, the origin doesn't matter. What matters is that everybody in your building uses the word the same way.

How to 86 an Item Without Chaos

Saying 86 is easy. The damage happens in the gap between the kitchen running out and the last server finding out. Every table that orders the short rib after it's gone gets a server walking back with bad news, and every one of those moments costs you a little goodwill.

A clean 86 has four steps, and each one needs an owner:

1. Call it early. The cook on the station calls it when they're down to the last few portions, not when the last one is on the plate. "Two short rib left" gives the floor time to stop selling.
2. One person announces it. Usually expo or the manager on duty. It goes to every server, the bar and the host, in person or at a pre-shift huddle.
3. Update the POS right away. Mark the item out so it can't be rung in. A verbal 86 that never makes it into the POS is how you end up with three more tickets for something you don't have.
4. Call it back when it returns. If more gets prepped, tell the floor it's back and turn it back on in the POS. Kitchens are good at calling 86 and bad at calling it back, which quietly costs sales.

If you run out of the same item every Friday, that isn't an 86 problem, it's a prep problem. Track what gets 86'd and when, and use it to fix your par levels. Our guide to mise en place covers building prep around what the night actually needs.

The Printable Kitchen Slang Glossary

Here are the terms a new hire will hear in their first week, grouped by when they come up. Print it, put it in your new hire welcome packet, and tape a copy by the time clock. Every kitchen has its own house words too, so add yours to the bottom.

How to Teach Kitchen Slang to New Hires

Most kitchens teach slang the hard way: the new hire hears "behind" for the first time with a sheet tray of hot pans an inch from their back. A few minutes of teaching up front saves weeks of confusion and a few close calls.

• Hand them the glossary on day one. Put it in the onboarding packet with the schedule and the station map. Our guide to the restaurant onboarding process covers what else belongs in that first day.
• Teach the safety words first. Behind, corner, hot and sharp matter more than anything else on the list. Walk through them before the new hire ever touches a station.
• Make "heard" a habit, not an option. A call that nobody answers is a call nobody can be sure landed. Insist on it from everybody, every time.
• Pair them with a trainer on a real shift. Reading the words is one thing. Hearing them at full speed on a Friday is another. A good trainer translates in the moment.
• Add your house words. Every kitchen has nicknames for dishes, stations and regulars. Write them down so they stop living in one person's head.

It all fits into a bigger restaurant training program, and our guide to restaurant staff training covers how to make the training actually stick. If you're hiring cooks right now, our line cook job description template is a good place to start.

If your 86s, prep lists and shift notes are still living on scraps of paper and in people's memory, that's the problem Crewli is built to solve. We build a custom operations app around how your restaurant already runs, so the whole team sees what's 86'd, what's prepped and what's next. Let's talk.

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