grubbing ken (plural grubbing kens)

1. (UK, obsolete, slang) A place where food may be procured; a workhouse or cookshop.
   • 1883, George Atkins Brine, The King of the Beggars, page 86:

     It was on my tongue, as the saying is, to tell him I was not a frequenter of “grubbing kens,” but I thought better of it; it was the best policy not to offend him, as he might be useful.

• John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary