Restaurant shorthand for an item that is sold out or pulled from the menu — "86 the salmon" means stop selling it.
86 (86ing)
Restaurant shorthand for an item that is sold out or pulled from the menu — "86 the salmon" means stop selling it.
To "86" something is to mark a menu item as unavailable — usually because the kitchen has run out of it, but also when an item is pulled for quality or taken off the menu. "86 the salmon" tells servers and the line to stop selling it immediately.
The term has to spread fast across the floor and the kitchen, because a server who rings in an 86'd item creates a remake, a comp, or an unhappy guest.
- How software handles it: 86ing an item at the POS removes it from ordering screens and grays it out on the kitchen display system, and keeps it off online-ordering menus in sync.
- Why it matters: uncoordinated 86ing is a top source of cancelled tickets during a rush.
Keeping 86'd items in sync across dine-in and third-party-delivery channels is a recurring operator pain and a selling point for integrated ordering.