Blue-plate special or blue plate special is a term used in the United States by restaurants, particularly (but not only) diners and cafes. It refers to a specially low-priced meal, usually changing daily. It typically consists of a "meat and three" (three vegetables), presented on a single plate, often a divided plate (rather than more elegantly on separate dishes). The term was very common from the 1920s through the 1950s. As of 2007, there are still a few restaurants and diners that offer blue-plate specials under that name, sometimes on blue plates, but it is a vanishing tradition. The phrase itself, however, is still a common American colloquial expression.
A web collection of 1930s prose gives this definition: "A Blue Plate Special is a low-priced daily diner special: a main course with all the fixins, a daily combo, a square for two bits."
Read more about Blue-plate Special: History of The Phrase, Contemporary Usage
Famous quotes containing the word special:
“There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
now; if it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is
all.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)