The Ocky Way

2020catchphraseclassic

The Ocky Way is a New York bodega sandwich-making style where Arab and Middle Eastern deli chefs pile absurd amounts of meat, fried food and toppings into one order. The catchphrase blew up on TikTok in late 2020 thanks to Brooklyn deli worker Rahim Mohamed and spread widely into 2022 as an ironic food-order meme.

food memescatchphrase memestiktok memesslang memesaccidental fame memes

Overview

The Ocky Way is a style of New York City bodega and deli sandwich-making associated with Arab and Middle Eastern corner-store chefs who cram enormous amounts of meat and fried food into a single order1. A sandwich made the ocky way typically piles chicken cutlets, burgers, mozzarella sticks, french fries, chicken tenders and even pancakes onto staples like the chopped cheese or a bacon, egg and cheese1.

The phrase is usually shouted at the counter alongside its companion line, "Don't forget the bev," and leans on the older NYC slang "ock," which refers to an Arab bodega worker2. On TikTok, the catchphrase became a whole POV subgenre of maximalist deli food videos filmed from behind the counter1.

How It Spread

Mohamed's audience exploded in early 2021. A TikTok posted on January 4th, 2021 was his first to top a million plays, ending up around 1.7 million views and 207,700 likes, and a January 13th clip of him building a sausage, egg and cheese the ocky way on a Honey Bun climbed to about 7.2 million plays5. Fans started making pilgrimages to the Red Hook deli, and Instagram user justinllai tagged Mohamed in a March 7th, 2021 in-store photo that drew more than 200 likes1.

By summer 2021, Mohamed had a big enough following that a group of college students hired him to cater a pool party, a clip reuploaded to YouTube on July 7th, 2021 that pulled around 41,200 likes and drew Get Out comparisons in the comments over the mostly white crowd1. The catchphrase kept spilling out through late 2021, with an August 6th Instagram meme using the line and an October 10th tweet from user killmefam joking, "Yo Ahk Let me get that honey bun cumshotted the ocky way! Dont forget the bev," which pulled around 1,200 likes1.

The ironic wave peaked in early 2022 when comedian Andy Milonakis posted a TikTok on March 6th, 2022 walking into his Yonkers deli and ordering food the ocky way, earning roughly 546,700 plays and 52,000 likes in four days1.

How to Use This Meme

People typically use the ocky way as an order at a bodega or deli counter, tacking it onto a sandwich request like "lemme get a bacon, egg and cheese the ocky way" and often adding "don't forget the bev" for the drink. In TikToks, the common convention is a first-person POV of the deli worker stacking a chopped cheese, BEC or breakfast sandwich with as much fried food as possible. Ironic versions swap in absurd toppings like Honey Buns or nonsensical flavor combos to push the format past its original maximalist logic1.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Ocky Way

2020catchphraseclassic

The Ocky Way is a New York bodega sandwich-making style where Arab and Middle Eastern deli chefs pile absurd amounts of meat, fried food and toppings into one order. The catchphrase blew up on TikTok in late 2020 thanks to Brooklyn deli worker Rahim Mohamed and spread widely into 2022 as an ironic food-order meme.

food memes catchphrase memes tiktok memes slang memes accidental fame memes

Overview

The Ocky Way is a style of New York City bodega and deli sandwich-making associated with Arab and Middle Eastern corner-store chefs who cram enormous amounts of meat and fried food into a single order1. A sandwich made the ocky way typically piles chicken cutlets, burgers, mozzarella sticks, french fries, chicken tenders and even pancakes onto staples like the chopped cheese or a bacon, egg and cheese1.

The phrase is usually shouted at the counter alongside its companion line, "Don't forget the bev," and leans on the older NYC slang "ock," which refers to an Arab bodega worker2. On TikTok, the catchphrase became a whole POV subgenre of maximalist deli food videos filmed from behind the counter1.

How It Spread

Mohamed's audience exploded in early 2021. A TikTok posted on January 4th, 2021 was his first to top a million plays, ending up around 1.7 million views and 207,700 likes, and a January 13th clip of him building a sausage, egg and cheese the ocky way on a Honey Bun climbed to about 7.2 million plays5. Fans started making pilgrimages to the Red Hook deli, and Instagram user justinllai tagged Mohamed in a March 7th, 2021 in-store photo that drew more than 200 likes1.

By summer 2021, Mohamed had a big enough following that a group of college students hired him to cater a pool party, a clip reuploaded to YouTube on July 7th, 2021 that pulled around 41,200 likes and drew Get Out comparisons in the comments over the mostly white crowd1. The catchphrase kept spilling out through late 2021, with an August 6th Instagram meme using the line and an October 10th tweet from user killmefam joking, "Yo Ahk Let me get that honey bun cumshotted the ocky way! Dont forget the bev," which pulled around 1,200 likes1.

The ironic wave peaked in early 2022 when comedian Andy Milonakis posted a TikTok on March 6th, 2022 walking into his Yonkers deli and ordering food the ocky way, earning roughly 546,700 plays and 52,000 likes in four days1.

How to Use This Meme

People typically use the ocky way as an order at a bodega or deli counter, tacking it onto a sandwich request like "lemme get a bacon, egg and cheese the ocky way" and often adding "don't forget the bev" for the drink. In TikToks, the common convention is a first-person POV of the deli worker stacking a chopped cheese, BEC or breakfast sandwich with as much fried food as possible. Ironic versions swap in absurd toppings like Honey Buns or nonsensical flavor combos to push the format past its original maximalist logic1.

Frequently Asked Questions