Just Got 86'ed

http://www.flickr.com/photos/czelticgirl/136120820/

86'ed means a bar refuses to serve a customer for certain reasons. It is more than a slang, it is in the dictionary if you search it. Here is the definition from the free dictionary.com:

eight·y-six or 86 (t-sks)

tr.v. eight·y-sixed or 86·ed, eight·y-six·ing or 86·ing, eight·y-six·es or 86·es Slang

1. To refuse to serve (an unwelcome customer) at a bar or restaurant.

2.

a. To throw out; eject.

b. To throw away; discard.

[Perhaps after Chumley's bar and restaurant at 86 Bedford Street in Greenwich Village, New York City.]

But this word has got to have some story behind it. Well, you saw the last sentence in the definition. Chumley's bar & restaurant, now as a tourist atraction in New Yock City has its own historical background.

"It was established in 1926 by the socialist activist Leland Stanford Chumley, who converted a former blacksmith's shop near the corner of Bedford and Barrow Streets into the Prohibition-era drinking establishment. The speakeasy became a favorite spot for influential writers, poets, journalists, and activists, including members of the Lost Generation and the Beat Generation movements.

A look at the Chumley's interior

             http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035825805@N01/127286965/

A number of qualities remain from Chumley's Prohibition history. Notably, the Barrow Street entrance has no exterior sign, being located at the end of a nondescript courtyard ("The Garden Door"), while the Bedford Street entrance, which opens to the sidewalk, is also unmarked. Inside, Chumley's is still equipped with the trap doors and secret stairs that comprised part of its elaborate subterfuge" (Wikipedia).


The "82" sign at the door was probably its only distinguishable landmark.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/371213609_54f9b1cafe.jpg



During and after the Prohibition era (google it), Chumley's became one of NYC's many literary hangouts serving drinks a who's who in 20th century literature including notables such a s John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Eugene O'Neill, William Faulkner, James Thurber, Anais Nin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg. Original dust jackets and portraits still line the walls. According to legend the term "86 it" for "kill it" or "forget about it" comes from a warning the cops would give, phoning ahead to Chumley to let him know they were on the way and customers should "86" out the exit. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/371215197/in/photostream/

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gansv1846/2900633116/