Though I have never run the same post twice, there is always a first. So here we go! Back in February, I wrote a little rant about the misspelling of Prix-fixe on restaurant menus and the inadvertent (other) meaning that such a mistake calls forth. Yesterday, I spied this little sign in Carciofo's window. So, pardon me, but I just have to post this again:
If you are going to give your restaurant this certain French " je ne sais quoi," better have a Frenchman check the spelling. I have been laughing out loud while walking down Brooklyn's commercial strips such as Smith Street and Court Street. Restaurants are competing for my business with large blackboards with their prix fixe menus.
Usually, a prix fixe in french means a fixed price charged for a meal. I don’t know what my neighborhood restaurants are trying to advertise. I have seen such variances as pre-fix, pre-fixe, prix-fixed or even pre-fixé.
"Pre-Fix" to me means either that the price shown is the one before it was fixed or that all the restaurateurs got together and fixed their menu prices. In other words: price gouging. Are they advertising that they are trying to cheat us?
Ah! The subtleties of language!
Do you have any good pictures of your price fixed restaurant menus?
Dictionary Definition:
prix fixe (prē' fēks')
n., pl. prix fixes (prē' fēks').
A complete meal of several courses, sometimes with choices permitted, offered by a restaurant at a fixed price.
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