Restaurant workers across the country are pushing back against the federal government's interpretation of a hospitality industry staple, after prosecutors charged former FBI Director James Comey with threatening President Donald Trump by posting "86 47" on Instagram last year.
The indictment claims a reasonable person familiar with the circumstances would read Comey's beachside photo of seashells arranged in that pattern as expressing intent to harm the president. But in kitchens and dining rooms from New York to California, the number 86 carries an entirely different meaning: something is out of stock, sold out, or needs to be discarded.
"It's probably the most overused word in hospitality," said Mike Reyes, 45, an operational excellence consultant at FLIK Hospitality Group who has spent decades in food service. "Any time you're out of anything, it's 86-ed." Reyes first encountered the term at age 14 during his first restaurant job and said it remains ubiquitous in the industry, used without any sinister connotation.
David Brungoli, owner and chef of Pavin 86, an upscale Italian restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side, called the prosecution theory "ridiculous." He named his establishment after its location on East 86th Street and its deep roots in the restaurant world. "The term '86,' we use only when the staff runs out of an item," Brungoli said. "It's been used forever. If it's 86, the next day we order more. It's 86 for now."
John Coppola, who runs Bread & Spread Sandwich in Brooklyn, acknowledged the term can be deployed as a verb with multiple tenses. A chef might say "86 it" if a dish doesn't meet standards, or plan to "86" an item by Friday. "In my world, it's not a death threat, but I think it can be perceived as that in someone else's eyes," Coppola said.
The origins of the term remain murky but appear rooted in early 20th century New York. Nicole Holliday, a linguistics professor at the University of California-Berkeley, traced it back to at least the 1930s, when it indicated a sold-out item at a soda fountain. One origin story credits Delmonico's restaurant, where the 86th item on the menu, a popular steak, would sell out quickly. Another links it to the Prohibition-era speakeasy Chumley's, which had multiple entrances; customers were allegedly told to "86 it" to escape through the Bedford Street exit when police raided. Chumley's closed in 2007, though its space later became a steakhouse called The Eighty Six.
Merriam-Webster defines the term as slang meaning "to throw out," "to get rid of," or "to refuse service to." Holliday noted the phrase also emerged in the 1930s and 1950s to describe bar patrons who were cut off from service or ejected from establishments.
Trump offered his own interpretation to reporters in the Oval Office, claiming 86 is a mob term for murder. "If anybody knows anything about crime, they know 86," he said. "You ever see the movies? '86 him,' the mobster says. That's a mob term for kill him. It means 'disappearing."
Zach Jensen, content development manager for the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, disputed that framing. He said there is no documented evidence that organized crime ever used 86 as a murder reference. "We're not aware of the term's being used in mob movies," Jensen said, though he noted a rumor, likely modern urban legend, that 86 refers to driving 80 miles out and burying a body 6 feet under.
Jensen confirmed that 86-ing somebody has appeared as a murder reference in late 1960s and 1970s contexts, but it was not common and did not originate there. "It's mainly used as a metaphor to get rid of something, and some take it to mean more than that," he said. The Mob Museum's own speakeasy uses the term in its original hospitality sense: when the bar runs out of an item.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "This prosecution hinges on redefining a century-old restaurant term into something sinister, and that's exactly how you criminalize everyday speech."
Comments