"A small coffee, please."
"You got it. Would you like a little room?"
she stares at me, completely blank. "What?"
"Do you take a little room in your coffee?"
"....... Do I ........ What?"
"Would you like space for milk or cream in your coffee?"
"Oh! Ha! I'm sorry. I'm from New York, and I don't quite get the lingo. 'A little room', what a cute way to say that!"
(I seriously thought that 'room' was universally spoken in any dirtwater coffee joint in the world. I learn something new every day. )
Posted by Sonya at August 27, 2006 11:44 AMI did get a picture of a little room, like a monopoly piece, when i read "do you take a little room in your coffee?" (BTW, they say it here, too.)
Posted by: Appalachia at August 27, 2006 02:44 PMhello from new york citay! people, in fact, say, all the time, every time i get coffee, many times a week, "room for milk?" so there ya go.
Posted by: joshua at August 27, 2006 09:10 PMSounds like she thought you were hitting on her.
"Do you wanna get a room?"
Considering you can't swing a giant, sewer-dwelling dead rat without hitting a Starbucks in NYC, I'm surprised she wasn't more "up on the coffee lingo", since that's a pretty standard ordering response.
Be that as it may, I think the traditional New York order for this would be, "coffee, white.", but that's what the customer would say. I guess the server's query if they didn't hear this would be something along the lines of, "do you want that black or white?"
But hey, they also place orders "to take away" instead of "to go", so there you are.
Posted by: COMTE at August 28, 2006 02:41 PM