What Does 86d Mean? Restaurant Term Explained

It's a busy dinner rush, and a line cook calls out that the salmon is 86d. If you're new to the floor or the line, the phrase can sound like code.

In restaurants, 86 is a slang term for an item that's sold out, out of stock, or no longer available. This guide covers how teams use the term and where it may have come from. You'll also learn how to keep your menus accurate once an item runs out.

What does "86d" mean in a restaurant?

So what does 86 mean on the job? When a cook calls a menu item 86 (spoken "eighty-six"), the kitchen can't serve it right now. The dish might be sold out, out of stock, or pulled from service.

Restaurant and bar staff across the hospitality industry have used this American slang term for decades. Merriam-Webster traces the noun to the early 1930s and the verb to the 1950s.

• Noun: "We're 86 on salmon."

• Verb: "86 the salmon."

• Past tense: "The salmon is 86d" (also written 86'd).

The term reaches beyond the kitchen. Bartenders 86 drinks when they run out of what goes in them.

You can also 86 a person. Merriam-Webster lists refusing service to a customer and getting rid of someone among its definitions. An 86d guest might be cut off at the bar or ejected altogether. A manager might tell the host stand, "He's 86d. Don't serve him."

Where did restaurants start using the term "86"?

The etymology of 86 remains unsettled. Merriam-Webster says many popular origin stories have no solid proof. Here are three theories, starting with the one tied most closely to restaurant work.

Theory #1: Early records tie 86 to soda fountains and lunch counters. Soda jerks, the staff who made drinks and sundaes, used numeric codes as shorthand behind the counter. In 1933, columnist Walter Winchell printed a soda jerk's glossary of this lingo, where 86 meant "all out of it," and 81 meant a glass of water. No one knows why workers picked 86.

Theory #2: A popular legend points to Chumley's, a Prohibition-era speakeasy at 86 Bedford Street in Greenwich Village. Author Jef Klein tells this version in his book, The History and Stories of the Best Bars of New York. Evidently, police warned the bar when a raid was coming, so the bartender would "86" his customers out the 86 Bedford door. It's a colorful story, but like many theories about 86, it remains unproven.

Theory #3: Merriam-Webster favors a simpler answer. The dictionary's research suggests 86 started as rhyming slang for "nix," a slang word for veto or reject.

How restaurant staff use "86" on the floor and in the kitchen

Why do restaurants say 86? During a rush, cooks and front-of-house staff (servers, hosts, and bartenders) have little time to talk. A quick restaurant code like "86 salmon" lets a cook alert the whole team without slowing the line.

When a dish runs out mid-service, these habits can help keep everyone informed:

• Check with the kitchen before ringing in a dish that seems low.

• Call out the 86 loudly and clearly so every server hears it.

• Write the item on the kitchen board right away.

• Mark the item unavailable in your point-of-sale (POS) system, the software servers use to send orders.

• Tell the host and bar when a guest is 86d, so no one serves them.

Tracking stock through restaurant inventory management helps you spot low items before they run out mid-shift. Checking counts before service also helps you plan prep and reduce food waste in your restaurant.

Keeping every channel in sync when a restaurant 86s an item

Crossing a dish off the kitchen board keeps your servers in the loop, but online customers can't see it. Until you update your delivery menu, they can still order the dish, which could lead to cancellations and refunds.

So update your online menu right after the kitchen board. On DoorDash Marketplace, the app where customers order from local businesses, you can do this from your Merchant Portal dashboard. Open the Menu Manager, mark the item out of stock, and choose how long it will be unavailable.

Once you save, the item can come off your DoorDash listing before more orders come in. Restaurants with a POS connected to DoorDash can often make this update from the POS instead. Either way, accurate item availability belongs on the list when you improve your restaurant menu.

Keep your menu accurate, wherever customers order

When your team 86s a dish, update your DoorDash listing along with the kitchen board. Marking the item out of stock in the Merchant Portal can help you avoid cancelled orders and refunds mid-shift.