urban barbecue
n.— «Some of these restaurants call themselves practitioners of urban barbecue, an undefined style that while having a ready-for-television name, has a meaning that is at best ambiguous. Explaining the urban barbecue he serves at Blue Smoke, where large white letters over the bar proclaim the phrase, the restaurateur Danny Meyer talks about sauces. “We can’t out-Memphis Memphis,” he said. “But there’s not another place with a selection of beers, wines and bourbons—what I like to think of as alcoholic barbecue sauces—like ours anywhere in the country.”…”We’ve got 23 beers on tap and a lot more barbecue. Maybe that’s what urban barbecue means: more barbecue under one roof. More choice.”» —“Smoke and the City: A Barbecue Cook-Off” by Peter Meehan New York Times June 8, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...