schmancy place

9.3

A fancy, expensive place for eating or drinking said as a joke

noun
/ˈʃmæn.si pleɪs/

Informal

: lugar elegante

Whenever his friends visit, he insists on taking them to a schmancy place for dinner.

Examples

I'm not dressed for a schmancy place like this; let's go somewhere more casual.
They held the award ceremony at some schmancy place downtown.
Wow, what a schmancy place!
We went to a schmancy place for dinner last night.
I'm not dressed for a schmancy place like this; let's go somewhere more casual.
They held the award ceremony at some schmancy place downtown.
Whenever his friends visit, he insists on taking them to a schmancy place for dinner.

Antonyms

dive

Slang

34 7.9

A cheap, shabby bar with low prices

run-down

15 4.5

A building or place that is in poor condition because people do not look after it

How Fancy

fine dining

14 3.9

schmancy place

Informal

9.3

restaurant

∞ 1.0

bistro

40 3.7

coffee shop

156 1.0

Surface Forms

schmancy place singular

schmancy places plural

Morphology

schmancy + place

The meaning is directly compositional: 'schmancy' is a playful/colloquial variant of 'fancy' (stylish, pretentious) and 'place' denotes an establishment, so the overall sense 'a fancy/upscale establishment' follows straightforwardly. A B1 learner who knows both words will therefore infer the MWE's meaning, although the informal/humorous tone (the 'schm-' playful augmentation) may require awareness of register.

Etymology

Schmancy place comes from a joking way people change words, like fancy-schmancy, where the 'schm-' sound turns fancy into the playful word schmancy. So, it means a 'fancy' or expensive place, said in a joking or slightly rude way.