Entry from
August 21, 2015
“A tenement house in Greenwood” (soup with greens)
New York City had some unusual restaurant slang in the 19th century. This term was heard on the Bowery and appeared in the New York (NY) Herald in 1888:
“That ‘a tenement house in Greenwood’ meant a plate of soup with plenty of greens in it.”
“Greenwood” is used for “greens,” but there is no evidence that this plate of soup has anything in particular to do with Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn.
15 April 1888, The Sunday Herald (Boston, MA), pg. 17, col. 6:
RESTAURANT SLANG.
During his stay in a cheap Bowery restaurant a New York Herald reporter learned several things he never knew before. Among others:
(...)
That “a tenement house in Greenwood” meant a plate of soup with plenty of greens in it.