On an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Detective Tutuola (played by actor and rapper Ice-T) walks into a bodega and asks for “Two coffees: one black and one regular.”
Huh? Question for New Yorkers, please: what is “regular” coffee if it’s not black, drip, American-style coffee? When I was a barista mumbleteen years ago, if someone asked for “regular coffee”, I’d probably ask them if they wanted “room for milk”. That’s it. The black, drip, and American-style would have been automatic.
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It was not “regular” as in “my [Tutuola's] regular”, by the way. That would have made sense (I had about a hundred customers’ regular orders stored in my head when I had the job), but he was in another neighborhood from where he lives and works, on a stakeout.
Many bodegas put in milk and sugar as a matter of course. I’ve found that out the hard way before.
Thank you. Weird.