Greasy spoon?? What the heck?

It seems I used the colloquialism "greasy spoon" in my latest story and I'm quite certain that our friends across the pond will have no idea what I'm talking about. First off, a greasy spoon is NOT an instrument of chastisement; that would be... wooden spoon.

A "greasy spoon" is a restaurant at the very bottom of the restaurant hierarchy. It's only redeeming value is price and sometimes quantity as well. That is, you often get a very generous portion of very bad food. Not much is done correctly in a "greasy spoons". Even the washing of eating utensils is done poorly; thus the spoons are.... greasy!

A guy by the name of Jack Prelutsky immortalized "greasy spoons" in the poem below. This poem is taught to very young school children as a way to introduce the basics of poetry (rhythm, rhyme etc.).

Gussie’s Greasy Spoon

Every day, at ten past noon,
I enter GUSSIE’S GREASY SPOON.
I plop down in the nearest seat,
and order food unfit to eat.
I try the juice, it’s warm and vile,
the scrambled eggs are green as bile,
the beets are blue, the beans are gray,
the cauliflower tastes like clay.


At GUSSIE’S GREASY SPOON, the stew
is part cement, part hay, part glue,
it’s mostly gristle, ropy tough,
a tiger couldn’t chew this stuff.
The rancid soup is foul and thin,
a bit like bitter medicine,
the melon smells, the salad sags,
the mashed potatoes seem like rags.


One whiff of Gussie’s weird cuisine
makes stomachs ache, turns faces green,
While her moldy muffins have no peers,
they’ll make you sick for forty years.
The coffee’s cold, the cake is stale,
the doughnuts taste like pickled whale,
yet, every day, at ten past noon,
I EAT... at GUSSIE’S GREASY SPOON.

Tired

We definitely talk about ‘greasy spoons’ to mean cheap cafes in the UK. They usually serve breakfasts and chips (French fries) with mugs of strong tea, and the ones around the city and courts area of London are usually filled with workmen in hard hats and high viz jackets and very grand looking city gents and barristers in their wigs.

As Katie says, the phrase is very well known in the UK. There was an item about them on the BBC news channel a few days ago and some food expert said there was still a place for them alongside more modern eateries.

Love the poem!

"Greasy spoon" food is not necessarily bad food, it's just likely to be bad for you, lots of basic fried food and carbohydrates which doesn't cost too much. Might be just the thing on a cold winter morning though. Katie's also right in that you don't get CUPS of tea, more like big mugs.

When I was a bus conductor I always had a huge cooked "greasy spoon" breakfast on my break when on early turns, plus a huge mug of tea the like of which I've never had since, but I'd work it all off on the job.

I live in New Jersey (USA) and here we use the term affectionately to describe a diner with personality. Definitely not gourmet, but not frozen and reheated, either. Diners are huge here and there's certainly a hierarchy!

hausfrau

Welcome to the forum!

Wow, that's an old term.

I mean, I'm in my early 20's from the UK and use the term 'greasy spoon'. I'm pretty sure it's just a common normative part of the vernacular.

I remember the 'greasy spoon' of my youth it was called the 'Blue Haven' now out of business for some 50 or more years. RK

Greasy spoons are wonderful, but sadly a dying breed. They are being replaced by "up-market" cafes, generally chains and would probably turn their noses up at greasy spoons' usual clientele--lorry drivers, construction workers and students.

I remember very fondly our student trips to such establishments (particularly the Broadway Cafe on Muswell Hill Broadway in London) for double egg (fried of course), double sausage, chips and beans served with a mug of tea and followed by the most amazing banana fritters (so deep fried in batter) and syrup.

That lot would cost less than a pack of cigarettes, which were dirt cheap then, too.

The chef (probably cook) at a good greasy spoon was an excellent cook of that sort of food.

My sister worked at one briefly. When she came home of an evening she had to take a bath--until she did she stank of deep fat frying.

Geoffrey Stirling.