hole-in-the-wall

• hole in the wall

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hole-in-the-wall (plural hole-in-the-walls or holes-in-the-wall)

1. (Canada, US) A restaurant, shop or other establishment catering to customers that is particularly inconspicuous and easily overlooked.
   • 2022, C.S. Poe, chapter 17, in Subway Slayings (Memento Mori; 2), Oklahoma City, Okla.: Emporium Press, →ISBN:

     They walked by a tea museum, two local pharmacies, a bakery, and one hole-in-the-wall shop still selling knickknacks from Chinese New Year, before coming to a stop outside the unassuming front door of 189.

2. (colloquial, chiefly British) Synonym of automated teller machine.

Although either plural can be used for both meanings, hole-in-the-walls tends to be most commonly used for the "obscure place" sense, and holes-in-the-wall is more frequently used to mean "automated teller machines".

Used to refer to an inconspicuous establishment, the term has a connotation that the quality of the food or rendered services deserves recognition.

The British sense of an automated teller machine may have originated as a trademark of Barclays.

• know someone from a hole in the wall