A bartender wonders about the origin of the term jockey box. In his world, a jockey box is a metal container for ice. However, in some parts of the western U.S., a jockey box is the glove compartment of a car, and much earlier, the term referred to boxes attached to the side of chuck wagons for holding feed or water. The caller also shares another bit of bartending slang, the so-called mat shot or Matt Dillon. It’s a glass of whatever liquor collects on the rubber mat on the bar, which some enterprising patrons order as a prank or a test of a strong stomach. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Jockey Box”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is William Chappell from Dallas, Texas.
Hi, William.
Hi, William. How are you doing?
I’m doing all right this afternoon.
How can we help you today?
Well, I’m in the restaurant and bar business, and I know you guys are always looking for quirky terms for names for things.
Oh, yeah, sure.
And we’ve got what we hold the ice in to make the drinks out of. It’s an ice well, and it’s called a jockey box.
And I have no idea. It’s just always what it’s been called since I’ve been in the business for about seven or eight years now.
Jockey box, you said it’s an ice well. What does that mean? How does it come into play? If I ask you for a drink, what do you do with the jockey box?
Okay, if you order a vodka tonic, I scoop the ice out of the jockey box, put it in the glass, and then pour the vodka and the tonic into it, put a straw in it, and serve it to you.
And that’s it? There’s nothing else but ice in your jockey box?
Well, it also, you attach the speed rails to the front of it. Speed rail holds the liquor bottles to make it real easy access for pouring.
Speed rail. I’m trying to picture this.
Speed rail. It’s a long metallic sort of framework that the bottles slide into. It’s got to be nice and so it’s easy to clean because it gets real sticky back there.
So the bottle goes in the speed rail and you pour the bottle from the speed rail into the glass with the ice from the jockey box. So the jockey box is the thing that contains the ice.
Correct.
Okay, interesting. Huh. Well, we know a jockey box. Some places in the country use that to refer to the glove box, right?
Right, the glove compartment in a car. But this is different. In the West, more like Utah. Utah, places like that, I think they call it the jockey box.
In more than one of the dictionaries of Western language, they talk about an old term for a box on the side of the chuck wagon that had a variety of things in it. Not like food, but it would have maybe a little grain for your draft animals.
I’m reading from one of the dictionaries here. It might have water. It might have a toolbox. Just supplies that you might need while the wagons are moving.
And it seems like a really good match to the way that you’re using jockey boxes. It’s kind of a place for some essentials, right?
Yeah, I think it’s right beside the driver or right under the driver. I think that’s the idea of jockey there.
Oh. Well, I think Martha hit upon the thing here. Here we are talking about the bartender, who’s basically the master of this situation.
In the same way that if you’re driving in the car, if you’re in the front seat, okay, maybe the glove box is on the right. But still, if you’re in the front, you are somehow responsible for what’s happening in that car, maybe outside of driving.
Just the same way as if you are responsible for the chuck wagon, you’ve got this box of essential supplies here, you’re in charge of something. You’re like the master of the situation, the commander, so to speak. And so you are the jockey. You are driving that figurative horse.
Okay. I mean, that’s just, it’s a theory. We can’t really prove that. Like a lot of the older language, it’s hard to really get at the true origins.
But it’s logical, and it fits the patterns that we know that language tends to take.
Yeah, yeah, that you go from something really specific, and then it gets applied to a lot of different situations. Tends to generalize. That would make sense.
So, William, what’s the weirdest drink you’ve ever been asked to mix, or the one with the most interesting drink?
Oh, the weirdest one would probably be what’s called a Matt shot. It’s also known as a Matt Dillon.
And it’s basically the rubber bar mats that you have below your serving station where you’re pouring all your liquor. Anything that spills over the glass goes onto that rubber mat.
And I’ve actually had customers come in and order a mat shot and drink it.
What? And then obviously you’re not charging them for anything, and it’s also a prank to play on your friend if somebody’s not very familiar.
Wait, you don’t even charge them for the ambulance they’ll need?
Oh, God, that’s awesome. No, this one’s on the house. I mean, how much liquor are we getting out of a mat? Is this a shot or a pint or a half?
You know, that’s so funny. It’s probably a function of, you know, what time it is in the night, how steady-handed the bartender is, or how much the bartender has had to drink.
Genius. I’m never ordering that for myself. Never. But maybe for somebody else. Stay away from a Matt Dillon. Stay away from that. Fantastic. Stay away from a Matt Dillon. I love it.
I hope we’ve helped you get to the truth about jockey box, William.
Yeah, it sounds good, guys. Y’all have a good afternoon. I’ll be listening to your show. Best of luck.
Poor Steady.
Yes, sir.
Bye-bye.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
What’s the crazy language in your business? We’d love to talk to you about your work and the language that you use in your job. 877-929-9673. Or, heck, just send us any question about language, slang, grammar, how to speak and write well. Send it to words@waywordradio.org.
