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
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