Restaurant Names

[elrap]

Two really cheap cheap joints in Los Angeles, alive and well a few years ago:

Meatty Meat Burger (sic - never ate there, but passed it a lot and never knew whether to laugh or cry)

Near Dodger Stadium, an outdoor burrito cart stationed in a car wash was known by many as the Car Wash Burrito. An excellent and hearty snack to take to a game at Chavez Ravine.

--L. Rap

[Rachel Perlow]

eGullet's very own Glenn, has recently decided to open a small restaurant, with grilled cheese being the specialty, and he asked eGullet to help him name it. The result was one of the best restaurant names ever: Melt.

[Tess]

I have avoided eating at a Pot Belly Deli in New England where the sign had an unhealthy-looking man with a belly that looked swollen, possibly from food poisoning.

I will not eat Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, and I found it embarrassing when a professional colleague insisted we have dinner at Fuddrucker's.

There was a place in New Hampshire called the Owl's Nest. All I would think of was the coughballs and other crap owls keep in their nest.

We drove past a Chinese restaurant. It had the unremarkable name "Peking Dragon" but there was a huge dragon on the roof looking like he was vomiting, and thanks to the hokey Asian script on the sign the name could easily be mistaken for "Puking Dragon."

I am ambivalent about The Pink Taco as a name for a Tex-Mex restaurant. Well, it is in Las Vegas.

Edited October 2, 2004 by Tess (log)

[Captain Hongo]

There was a storefront resturant i St. Louis which when you entered, had just a window in the wall that you ordered and received from. No tables or counter. The name?

TAKE IT AND GIT

Captain Hongo

[hayasaka.k]

I was looking for a photo or reference to a Vietnamese noodle house (Pho Bich Nga) somewhere in Eastside Vancouver and surprisingly found this:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pho+bich+nga

The guys never get tired of suggesting this place.

Edited to remove tags.

Edited October 5, 2004 by hayasaka.k (log)

[Shelley G.]

I remember seeing a pub called "The Slug and Lettuce'. Loved the name, didn't try the food.

[Fritz Brenner]

In Kalamazoo, MI, where i'm originally from, there is a place called: "Duck Inn, Waddle Out." Unfortunately, I've never had the opportunity to duck in myself.

In Portland, OR, where I live now, my current favorite is: "Tosis." ?! This seems wrong on many levels.

[Pan]

There is or was until recently a sort of bar and grill or something on Greenwich Av. in New York called the Dewdrop Inn. On principle, I would never want to go to a place with such a dreadful punnish name.

[NulloModo]

There is or was until recently a sort of bar and grill or something on Greenwich Av. in New York called the Dewdrop Inn. On principle, I would never want to go to a place with such a dreadful punnish name.

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There is one of those in southern DE as well. It is a... umm... house of ill repute. No, I have never been... but they supposedly do serve food... ick.

[Al_Dente]

In Goreme Turkey there is a restaurant called Ufuk II. They offer to seat you in chairs shaped like camel saddles. I declined the offer, but if I remember correctly, the food was pretty good.

[MobyP]

I think there's a Thai place off the King's road (London) called Phat Phuc

[crouching tyler]

There was a place called Le Tub in Hollywood, FL. Sort of a divey little pub, but right on the Intercoastal. One of the few inexpensive places to have a cold beer and some fish and chips, overlooking the water.

In their "garden" entrance, there were assorted old plumbing fixtures (tubs, sinks etc...) filled with scraggly plants.

[jBo]

Always my fave ... in Jacksonville, FL (no longer open, I think) ... Yings Chinee Takee Outee.

[rooftop1000]

Butler NJ....YU KI Sushi....ok so its called yucky, its in a place where there is no other sushi for many many miles, in a run down 2 store strip on the highway, and we were hungry. We decided to get take out if it was that bad we could get a pizza. It was so lovely and serene inside, and we looked like hell waiting on the bench. They brought us tea and magazines for our wait on the group W bench and we watched the fish tank(pets). One fish kept floating upside down like it was dead. The hostess came running over and smacked the tank, .... she said "he not dead just playing" she was right....food was good too

tracey

[jmsaul]

There's a restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON, that everyone knows as <a href="http://www.kitchenchick.com/2004/06/the_rest_in_nia.html">The Rest</a>. It has a perfectly good name -- the Stone Road Grill -- but nobody uses it. Apparently, when it opened they hadn't finished painting over the previous name on the awning, and everyone got used to the awning just saying "REST" so they left it that way. Great place, and more of a locals' secret than a tourist restaurant.

[Pontormo]

besides the obvious nipple reference

Um, an aureole is the big gold shiny halo thing around saints' heads in medieval pictures.

You're thinking of an areola.

exactly. "aureole" and "areola" are way too close for comfort.

At least for saints

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I can't find a good online detail from a fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, but the following entry will do...read all the way down to the final paragraph for full culinary relevance: Saint Agatha

The problem with the name is minor, but in D.C. owners decided to call their small. cozy establishment Pesto Ristorante.

Using the Italian name for a restaurant is a bit too self-conscious and the full name's awkward to say. Why not simply Pesto? Short, snappy, not all that original, but certainly appealing and it conveys a lot about what customers might expect from the place.

[suzilightning]

a place recently opened up here in northwest nj

FISH 'N BOOZE

his ad says " I have fish, I have booze". i'd rethink the name perhaps.

Edited October 5, 2005 by suzilightning (log)

[M.X.Hassett]

a place recently opened up here in northwest nj

FISH AND BOOZE

his ad says " I have fish, I have booze".  i'd rethink the name perhaps.

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Great name

Edit: At least it is not "Crab and Booze I have crabs, I have booze"

Sorry I could not resist

Edited October 5, 2005 by M.X.Hassett (log)

[WHS]

Back in the '70's there was a place on a little island off the coast of Pattaya, Thailand that had a sign in English that read 'FOOD & DOPE". The dope was better than the food.

[ghostrider]

In NYC, on 8th Ave. just below Madison Sq Garden, there's a Chinese place called the Dinersty Restaurant.

Edited October 5, 2005 by ghostrider (log)

[jmsaul]

Back in the '70's there was a place on a little island off the coast of Pattaya, Thailand that had a sign in English that read 'FOOD & DOPE".  The dope was better than the food.

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Oddly enough, there's one called that here in Ann Arbor MI, too.

[MarketStEl]

I can't stand places that have misspelled names like "Kowboy Kafe" etc.  Places with Kutsey names often seem to have awful food.

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Guess you've never eaten Krispy Kreme donuts, then.

[MarketStEl]

In Maywood, Illinois, near the horse race track, there was once a hot dog stand called "Eat It and Beat It" -- not a place you'd want to hang around for too long.

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There's a place in Kansas City with virtually the same name.

Make that "there used to be a place...."

This hole in the wall--one of the city's better barbecue joints--has been in existence since the 1950s.

[MarketStEl]

Well, this place is a bar, but in Pennsylvania, all bars must also serve food. (Whether they actually do in practice is another story.)

I'd be careful ordering a hot dog from Dirty Frank's, but this Wash West institution--I think it's been around since the end of Prohibition--has a fabulous beer selection and an eclectic crowd. Boho literary/journalist types have been known to hang out there.

There's no sign over the door, but the mural on the outside walls is one huge in-joke. It includes:

--a French franc coin

--a hot dog

--Sinatra

--FDR

--St. Francis of Assisi

...and so on. You get the picture.

Then there's Center City's newest barbecue emporium, The Smoked Joint.

[M.X.Hassett]

In NYC, on 8th Ave. just below Madison Sq Garden, there's a Chinese place called the Dinersty Restaurant.

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Yep, I recall seeing that if I had my phone with me I would have snapped a picture.