# Do you refuse to say gimmick names for chain restaurant food? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2019, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280 "2019-03-17T23:45:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/1 "2019-03-17T23:45:48Z")
Whenever a chain decides to have a “fun” name for a staple menu item do you say that name or just use a generic term for it? For example do you order at Denny’s the “Moons Over My Hammy sandwich” or just the ham and eggs sandwich? Or do you order at Wendy’s the “S’Awesome Burger” or just call it “Awesome burger” for short or even just it’s combo number on the menu? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/2 "2019-03-18T00:13:58Z")
at a place like Dennys yes because a lot of the times the server doesn’t know what the dish actually is at the fast food places not really… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/3 "2019-03-18T00:22:09Z")
A place like Denny’s has so many versions of ham and eggs, pancakes, etc. that you really do need to specify which menu item you’re talking about. At a fast food place I usually just order by the item #. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/4 "2019-03-18T00:26:24Z")
If there’s a menu I point. Assuming the wait-person can read all’s usually good. I rarely eat anything at Mcdonalds. At Sonic I say their name for the item. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/5 "2019-03-18T01:43:44Z")
Kind of, I refuse to learn whatever Starbucks calls small, medium and large. It’s rare for me to go in one, so it’s not an issue. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/6 "2019-03-18T02:26:40Z")
The only place this has bothered me is Cracker Barrel. I want 2 eggs, sausage, grits, toast. I don’t give a flying frig if that is Grandma’s breakfast, Pappy’s platter, the Farmer’s skillet, whatever - I just want 2 eggs, sausage, grits and toast. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/7 "2019-03-18T02:30:59Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > A place like Denny’s has so many versions of ham and eggs, pancakes, etc. that you really do need to specify which menu item you’re talking about. Even if you think that the place’s menu items have annoyingly cutesy, gimmicky, or twee names, all you’re doing when refusing to use the names is taking out your annoyance on your server, who had nothing to do with the names, and making your server’s life just a little more difficult (and increasing the odds that they won’t get your order right). This is particularly true if you get a server who’s newer and not entirely familiar with the ins and outs of the menu. If you can’t bring yourself to use the cutesy name, just point at the darned thing on the menu. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/8 "2019-03-18T02:44:34Z")
I would totally eat Denny’s “Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity,” but I don’t think an adult should have to utter that phrase out loud. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/9 "2019-03-18T02:47:46Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Even if you think that the place’s menu items have annoyingly cutesy, gimmicky, or twee names, all you’re doing when refusing to use the names is taking out your annoyance on your server, who had nothing to do with the names, and making your server’s life just a little more difficult (and increasing the odds that they won’t get your order right). This is particularly true if you get a server who’s newer and not entirely familiar with the ins and outs of the menu. > > If you can’t bring yourself to use the cutesy name, just point at the darned thing on the menu. Too late to edit: my apologies to kunilou; my quoting of them made it sound like I was saying that kunilou didn’t want to say the cutesy names, which is not the case. I’d intended to be building on the point in the previous post, and I did so in a confusing manner. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/10 "2019-03-18T03:34:23Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Even if you think that the place’s menu items have annoyingly cutesy, gimmicky, or twee names, all you’re doing when refusing to use the names is taking out your annoyance on your server, who had nothing to do with the names, and making your server’s life just a little more difficult (and increasing the odds that they won’t get your order right). This is particularly true if you get a server who’s newer and not entirely familiar with the ins and outs of the menu. QFT ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/11 "2019-03-18T03:35:27Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I would totally eat Denny’s “Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity,” but I don’t think an adult should have to utter that phrase out loud. I should hope you wouldn’t utter that phrase at Denny’s, seeing as that’s IHOP’s signature meal. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/12 "2019-03-18T04:09:11Z")
i thik dennys even made fun ot it… in a commrical series Theres a bunch of grizzled old farmers in a diner talking about crops wilting lost cows dying ect then a waitress pops up and they say a bunck of exergrated kids menu stuff … and then "dennys a serious diner "…ect ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/13 "2019-03-18T06:40:29Z")
I won’t do it until they tell me they won’t sell me the hamburger and then I will call the stupid thing a mini burger. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/14 "2019-03-18T11:53:21Z")
I love saying “rooty tooty fresh and fruity” and would have no problem ordering it by name. The handful of times I’ve been to Starbucks I think I either pointed to the size cup or said “whatever the smallest is”. I haven’t been there enough to know the names, and, even though I think it’s kind of stupid, I would call them by whatever the staff knows them by. What I won’t do is call the chicken nuggets at McDonald’s “McNuggets”. and I wouldn’t say “McMuffin” either, but I don’t eat them so it’s never come up. I don’t know why these bug me when the others don’t but they just strike me as embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/15 "2019-03-18T12:06:21Z")
It’s not just chain restaurants that do this. Local sandwich joints do the same thing, perhaps with each sandwich named after a person or organization in the area. And yes, I dislike it and prefer not to use the silly names. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/16 "2019-03-18T13:07:22Z")
Heck, I used to read the entire ridiculous menu description when I ordered at the Denny’s type places. As in “I’d like the 3 extra fluffy scrambled farm fresh eggs with your specially seasoned applewood bacon and topped with your delicious golden buttery cheese blend, please”. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/17 "2019-03-18T13:09:07Z")
I find gimmick names / silly names for food / drink items – in places which one goes to, to consume same on the spot – foolish and embarrassing to have anything to do with. I’ll devise various work-arounds to avoid having to say the idiot thing aloud (I think I’d rather die, than enunciate out loud “rooty tooty fresh and fruity”) There’s a particular thing in this field, about which I maybe go to extremes. My country (UK) produces – often in restricted localities – a vast range of beers and ales: the marketing folks knock themselves out inventing quirky names for the endless numbers of these, which periodically wax and wane – a more-than-tiny minority of such names, are for me embarrassingly silly to the nth degree. (Many of such, involve bogus “rustic-speak”.) Those beers whose names I find, in that way, just too goofy and awful: I refuse to try, or have anything to do with – let alone saying the name – I don’t care if the beverage concerned is, in itself, the best beer in creation. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/18 "2019-03-18T13:10:06Z")
I only refuse to use a gimmick name if it has some other obvious name and the gimmick name is too long. For instance a hypothetical dish called “Captain Jack Sparrows Sparrowriffic Blackbird Pie” I would just call “Blackbird Pie”. The worst offender for me is 7-11’s Bahama Mama sausage, because I have to specify its name to differentiate it from their other oblong meat selections, and unless you say each of the seven syllables slowly, the cashier will make you repeat it. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/19 "2019-03-18T13:31:08Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Kind of, I refuse to learn whatever Starbucks calls small, medium and large. It’s rare for me to go in one, so it’s not an issue. Yeah, I’ll back this up. Small, medium and large, kid. Just make it happen. I’ve even adopted ‘No hablo Starbucks’ from Questionable Content when they try to specify. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280/20 "2019-03-18T14:02:46Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Yeah, I’ll back this up. Small, medium and large, kid. Just make it happen. > > I’ve even adopted ‘No hablo Starbucks’ from Questionable Content when they try to specify. It’s weird how they got all the yuppies who would refuse to say Supersize Me, or whatever, to use their dumb names for small, medium, and large. I go in a Starbucks maybe once every couple of months, but I’ve never had anyone be the list bit of confused by my ordering a medium cup of coffee. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-refuse-to-say-gimmick-names-for-chain-restaurant-food/831280.md?page=2)