I just used this in an e-mail to a friend, and it occurred to me that, though I've been using the expression verbally all my life, I've never really seen it in print, and I wasn't sure how to write it...so I opted for coffee-and. Is this expression an offical word? It's slang for a light breakfast, "Let's go get some coffee-and." As in coffee and pastry, coffee and donuts, coffee and bagels, etc. And is there a *correct way to write it? (coffee-and, coffee and, coffeeand?)

first time I've ever heard it.

If you like the hyphen, go for it. Depending on what follows it you might need it for clarity.

You're the first person I've heard use it, WO'N, though I knew what you meant.

heard it often, don't know if i have ever seen it in print
i think i would have coffee and...--
i know, i know, i am always using ...,in two or threes, but this is one of those perfect places its shows the voice trailing off, and it suggest a that what follows isn't as important as coffee and.

I've only heard it in NYC, so it may well be limited to that general vicinity.

Meanwhile, anybody ever heard someone go into a bagel shop and order an "everything with nothing"?

i like my everythings toasted, with butter.. but sometimes i'll have an everything with nothing!

Made sense although I haven't heard it used hereabouts.
I intend to adopt it!

an other only in NY bagel expression is ess'a bagel.. from the chain of the same name.. ess'a is (yidish? Hebrew?) slang word for eat (to eat up/devour) so ess'a bagel for breakfast, lunch or dinner!
(ess's and it's a (izza)sound very similar.)

nope, can't say I've previously encountered this juan before. And just what are your everythings then, OT?

ess'a bagel

Sure sounds like Yiddish to this (lightly) German trained ear.

Never heard coffee-and(...) but I think I'll introduce it around here, it's the perfect descriptor. (well maybe tea-and...)
Never heard of an everything with nothing but someone at the next table ordered a double decaf skim milk latte and I heard the waiter call it a double why-bother.

a double decaf skim milk latte and I heard the waiter call it a double why-bother.

Amen! It's what I ask of people who drink caffeine-free diet Coke.
http://duckboy.com/425A.JPG

a double why-bother

LOL!

bagels come traditionally flavored (savory) and modern, (sweet)-- the savory flavors are plain, egg, pumpernickel and plain with; salt or poppy seeds or seseme seeds or onion and with everything, salt, poppy seeds, seseme seeds and onion!
new modern sweet bagels are raisin, or blueberry, or maple walnut, etc.

NYC residents (born and bred) tend to eat savory bagels.
bagels are served with butter, or a schmer (of cream cheese) or fancy (with cream cheese and lox, or cream cheese and 'cavier' roe, or with lox and eggs and onions (a LEO) or plain (nothing!) so an everything with nothing is an everything bagel, with nothing on it.

transplanted NYers eat cinnamon raisin bagels spread with strawberry jam.(yuck!)
real bagels, like pretzels, are boiled (or steamed) before being baked. the boiling gives them a distintive crust.

Maybe it is a New York City regional thing, then, since I grew up 30 miles from New York. But it's not uncommon down on the Jersey Cape, either, or in the Philadelpia area. I would say, though, that the "and" has come to be emphasized, verbally, as in "coffee-AND." In fact, it's also a popular descriptive of a light breakfast buffet lfor business meetings, etc. What did they have? They had coffee-and. Or, we had coffee-and. And when working as a banquet waiter that was the set-up designation for a light buffet consisting of coffee, tea (hi Zed! ), juice, pastry, donuts, and bagels. You'd ask, "what's the breakfast set-up for this meeting?" (or room) And the manager would say "coffee-and."
And, also, at the morning coffee break folks might say, "Time for some coffee-and."

And this has been around for awhile (or at least since I've been a little kid no, I ain't doin' the math! . So is it in the OED, OEDers?

everything with nothing

Never heard it, AnnaS. And I've haunted bagel shops, daily, from NY to Philadelphia and wherever I've traveled, since I'm a bagel-addict from way back.

Now, a "nothing with everthing....would we call that the Sarte Bagel?...no, how 'bout the Camus Bagel?

The "everything with nothing" could be the Alan Watts Bagel. Shona, where are you?

I've never seen 'coffee and...', but if it implies something to me then 'coffee and a Danish' is what would come to mind.

There was also something of a social connotation to the expression once (moreso in the "housewife/soap opera" days of yore) where coffee-and implied just not the light breakfast spread, but also the socialization that accompanied it. So one might hear someone say, "You'll have to stop by sometime for a little coffee-and." I guess, "Stop by for tea," is in the similar vein.

Hmm. Two things have just occurred to me, both relating to the way coffee-and is said. The first surprised me--I realized that I say cawfee; if I try to give it the same o sound that I give collar, it comes out nasal and very unpleasant to my ears. Odd that I can say one but not the other! Anyway--I think, were I to ever use this expression, I don't think I'd say cawfee-AND; I'd probably say CAWfee-and.

in the "housewife/soap opera" days of yore
We called that a coffee klatch when I was growing up. Not sure how to spell it 'cos I've never seen it written.

coffee klatch

Yep, so did we. I think it's a Yiddish word (ask tsuwm) so it could be spelled different ways but I'd be inclined to put an S in there: klatsch.

klatsch

Yep, AnnaS, that's how I remembers it, only coffee was spelled kaffee whenever it appeared with klatsch.

I don' know nuffin 'bout no klatches. now klezmers..
-joe (tappin' toe) klapper

edit: klatch appears to be from the German word for gossip. hence, gossip over coffee is kaffeeklatsching. :)