buffet flat
n.— «Have you ever been to a buffet flat? It’s neither a lunchroom nor a variation of a western plain. It’s peculiar to Harlem, yet few white visitors to that Negro haven in New York City ever hear of it, and practically none get into one. In “Emperor Jones,” a picturization of Eugene O’Neill’s famous play…a buffet flat is shown in all its colorful detail. A buffet flat is simply a Harlem apartment to which people come to sit around, eat, drink, talk, sing and dance. » —“Emperor Jones Is Coming” Nevada State Journal (Reno) Dec. 17, 1933. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital is a sensuous, exhilarating meditation about the strangeness of life on a space station, with its mix of tedious tasks and jaw-dropping views. And: a musician who rode the rails in his youth shares the slang he...
Patrick in New York City is curious about the term ride or die, which describes a friend, fan, or romantic partner who is devoted to the end. The expression shows up in the mid-1990s in hip hop and the work of Tupac Shakur and The Lox, and often...