Explanation: Nine entries are either food items themselves - or, in the case of NONFAT and ARBYS - reference food within the clue. (Some do both!). The initial letters of these entries, in standard top-down fashion, spell out MONK'S CAFE, the name of the local coffee shop on "Seinfeld," the answer to our meta and one of the iconic TV shows of the '90s, reaching #1 in the year-end Nielsen ratings for the first time in '95 (numeric tie-in!). Though the show was pitched as a show about NOTHING, it's wild how much of the plots did revolve around food in some way. I clued most of the themers alluding to their appearance in the show and, if you caught any of them, you would've gotten this one rather swiftly!
I did not even see the Monk's Cafe. I knew it as its real, and MUCH more appealing name, Tom's Restaurant.
oldjudge 2s · 2024-06-01T17:16:39.606Z
By George I've got it!
KayW 🤓7:10 · 2024-06-01T17:26:41.348Z
Nice! I confess I might have short-cut to the answer... I recognized the references of MUTTON, SOUP, FLOUNDER, ECLAIR as elements in that show that could be subtitled MU(L)CH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. I am going to go back now and see if there was something more explicit that I missed. Are you running a NOTHING theme these first few weeks?
oldjudge 2s · 2024-06-01T19:16:45.966Z
Kay--Also KIT KAT. Remember the episode at Putty's auto dealership where George gets his KIT KAT stuck in the vending machine.
I was seeing a four-course meal: MUTTON (in lieu of salad?) and SOUP as starters, FLOUNDER as the entree and ECLAIR as dessert. Then OREOS seemed like a good alternate to 72A = a dessert that must be "served properly" (i.e. twisted!) and FLOUNDER kinda fit with ERR... but that's where that all ended. ;) Thanks, Mikey.
I spelled out the entries but I got Mionkscfae (I included IVY and transposed the f and a) and didn't recognize it. I do not remember the flounder episode but I was remembering the mutton episode but I had forgotten it was in lieu of salad. That bugged me for a long time and I kept have have Shari Lewis Lambchop sing-a-long that never worked.
HeadinHome 🤓4:32 · 2024-06-02T03:07:36.363Z
Definitely was making this harder than it was! I was just sure those tortured clues were acronyms or pointing to a total of words (numbers), or flagging odd words (supremely delicious? Served properly? In lieu of salad??). I’m guessing maybe those are Kramerisms? Had to google Monkafe finally (I missed the C because that clue was too normal) and Monk Cafe came up, thankfully!
The Google gods were much kinder to you, I also found MONKAFE but all my search turned up was some coffee shop in Spain!
HeadinHome 🤓4:32 · 2024-06-03T22:20:37.305Z
I may have googled it as 2 words: "monk afe", which gave me several Monk's Cafes, so I changed that to Monk Cafe and tried that. Also, pretty sure I tried "The Monk" as the TV show...
whimsy 15:19 · 2024-06-02T03:24:26.949Z
Wasn't really watching Seinfeld or much else in the 90's (Imagine that?!)
Probably because kids were born in the mid/late 80's. But I googled what I got, and ta-dah.
Mulligatawny SOUP, well I know it as stew (what I entered and had a terrible time with the grid,) and the only time I've ever heard it referred to as soup was on...HEY, wait a minute; Supreme Flounder, Puddy's Arby's Night, "Salad aint got nuttin on this mutton"...had to be one of my favorite shows. I laughed so hard at the meta that I needed a sponge to clean up the tears of joy...but this was definitely sponge worthy. I suppose I should have known from the soup vs stew because after I entered stew I did not have a square to spare.... Now if you'll excuse me I am going ot get my Snicker's bar and enjoy it. Oh. Delores, did you see my knife and fork.
On an unrelated note, was Mairzy Doats in Seinfeld anywhere? I do not remember it, but your IVY clue seems to call it to the fore.
Qmark 3s · 2024-06-02T12:54:39.773Z
Loved your puzzle, Mikey! I had watched the show each week when it first aired, but not many reruns so I had forgotten a lot of these food references. Enjoyed finding the clips on Youtube. Loved how you brought in Monk's. Kudos!
MatthewL 🤓7:51 · 2024-06-02T16:53:18.155Z
Took me a day and some serious pondering, but finally saw the light. Very nice one, Mikey!
Only with a nudge, and a blatant one at that! And I've watched the show!! That said, I don't think I've seen every ep, and with a memory like a sieve the details of the ones I have seen have been quickly forgotten. No SOUP for me!
i got stuck with spotting "Flo" in FLOUNDER, "Mel" in MELTDOWN, and "Vera" in OVERALLS... characters from "Alice" that work at Mel's Diner!!... the symmetric entry PYRENEES contain the name RENEE but google came up empty for associating that name with the show...
needed a nudge to get out of that rabbit hole - great puzzle thanks :)
rjy 6s · 2024-06-04T15:06:32.272Z
Got it strictly from the all about NOTHING notion, with a SOUP and CEREAL clincher. That's all I needed!
Maybe I would have gotten this without hints if "Junior Mint" had been in there somewhere! I was concentrating only on the food entries that had the long-winded clues, and wasn't getting anywhere. I've probably seen all the episodes, but my memory for tv (and movies and books) ridiculously bad.
Joe 🤓7:43 · 2024-06-06T02:40:25.244Z
Yeesh. I totally get why you thought that was a 1.5. But, wow, did it take me forever. Brilliant, as usual, Mikey!
Meta World Peace 3s · 2024-06-07T23:06:19.987Z
And do-nut think for one moment that I missed the NOTHING in the center that this puzzle was "about"! Love those diner scenes.