What does 86 mean? How to 86 an item everywhere at once

The short list

What 86 means in the kitchen and on the floor

To 86 an item means to stop selling it, because it has run out or because the kitchen has pulled it for now. You’ll hear it as a verb (“86 the salmon”) and as a label (“salmon is 86”, or “86’d”). Say it “eighty-six”.

• ✓In the kitchen: a cook calls it when the last portion goes out, or when something isn’t right to serve, like a fish delivery that didn’t come. From then on, nobody should ring it in.
• ✓On the floor: servers stop offering it, point guests to something else, and mark it in the POS so it can’t be ordered by mistake.
• ✓At the bar: “86” can also mean cutting a guest off or asking them to leave. Same word, different job.
• ✓For now, not forever: an 86 usually lasts for the shift or the day. When the item is back, it comes off the 86 list.

Where did 86 come from?

Nobody knows for sure. It shows up in print by the early 1930s, in lists of soda fountain and lunch counter slang, where “86” meant “all out of it.” Where the number itself came from is still a guess. These are the theories you’ll hear most:

• Rhyming slang for “nix”. Eighty-six rhymes with nix, old slang for “no” or “cancel”. Dictionaries most often point here, but even they call it likely, not proven.
• Lunch counter code. Soda fountains and diners used number codes to talk fast behind the counter, and 86 meant the item was gone. That fits the oldest printed uses, but it doesn’t explain why 86.
• A New York speakeasy. Chumley’s, a Prohibition-era bar at 86 Bedford Street, comes up a lot. The story goes that when police were about to raid it, customers were hustled out the door at number 86. It’s a good story, with no solid proof behind it.
• Other stories. One says a soup pot fed 85 people, so the 86th went without. Another points to Article 86 of the U.S. military code, which covers being absent without leave. None of these has been proven either.

The 86 list at shift start

The 86 list is what’s out, and what’s running low, shared with the whole team before service. Typically the chef or kitchen manager goes over it at lineup, and it’s written where servers will see it, like a whiteboard by the pass or a note at the POS.

A sample 86 list. Counts on the low items let servers warn guests before the last one goes.

The list at lineup is the easy part. The 86s that hurt are the ones that happen at 7:30 on a Friday, when everyone’s hands are full.

Why 86s go wrong: the board and QR menu still show the item

An 86 usually reaches the kitchen and the servers. It often doesn’t reach the menus your guests read: the TV board over the counter, the QR menu on the table and the menu on your website. So guests keep choosing a dish you can’t make.

At the counter, a guest waits in line, decides on the brisket, and hears “sorry, we’re out” at the register. Now they’re choosing again with a line behind them. At the table, a server walks back with bad news. Online, someone comes in asking for a dish you ran out of hours ago.

Printed menus can’t change mid-shift at all. That’s why the screens and the QR menu are the ones to keep right during service.

86 it everywhere with Just a Menu

In Just a Menu, you 86 an item once. Tap Sold Out on it in Menu Workspace, from your phone, tablet or computer. Your TV menu boards say “Sold Out”, and your QR menu and website menu hide it or gray it out, whichever you pick. When it’s back, tap Available.

Real screen · sample menu

Menu Workspace. One tap marks an item sold out on every screen.

There’s no redesign, no re-exporting and no re-uploading. The same menu runs your TV boards, your QR menu and your website menu, so one tap reaches all of them. How Just a Menu runs your menu boards

Specials often go first. They’re usually made in small batches, and they’re the hardest thing on the wall to miss. When one sells out, put up a new one: in Digital Signage, click + Scene, then Scene Magic, and pick a dish and a look. The finished slide is ready in about a minute.

Real install: Wing Dash · Dallas, TX

One special, one screen, one price. Scene Magic makes slides like this one from a dish you pick.

On a POS? 86 it in Square, Toast, Clover or Oracle

On Square, Toast, Clover or Oracle, you don’t have to 86 an item twice. 86 it in your POS and it’s marked sold out in Just a Menu automatically: your TV boards show “Sold Out”, and your QR menu hides it or grays it out. Bring it back in your POS, and it comes back.

• ✓Connect once, read-only. After that it’s automatic, and you never have to open Just a Menu to do it.
• ✓Timing: how quickly changes arrive depends on your POS.
• ✓Store by store: an 86 at one store changes that store’s TVs and QR menu, and no one else’s.
• ✓Prices too: change a price in your POS, and your boards, QR menu and print menus follow on their own. Raising prices? How to word a price increase notice

On Toast? Here’s how to 86 items on Toast and update every menu. On another POS, we can integrate with it by request. See all POS integrations

Questions

Next guide

Getting started

From a photo of your menu to your TV, in four steps, including how to take something off for the day.

Read the guide →