Cumbrous:
cumbersome [Merriam-Webster]
Another definition called it a “literary synonym for cumbersome”, which makes some sense in that cumbersome is, itself, a cumbersome word, yet literary fiction yearns for grace. Seen in “The Secret of Hollywood’s Oldest Restaurant? Don’t Change Anything,” Michael Callahan, Los Angeles Magazine:
It seemed as if the restaurant were expecting Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn for dinner: Calf’s liver, Welsh rarebit, sweetbreads, and lamb kidney with bacon were (and continue to be) mainstays. And there is that virtual ocean of beef—Flintstonian porterhouses and bone-in rib eyes, filet mignons in varying sizes, New York steaks and Manhattan steaks and ground beef steaks, all prepared in plain view on the seething Musso grill. From 1922 until 1976, the kitchen was the domain of Jean Rue Sr., a bantam Frenchman whose ego belied his size and who was the driving force behind the cumbrous cuisine. Status was conferred not only by having an assigned booth but bartenders who knew exactly how you liked your drink and chefs who would custom-make your dinner. Years after her husband’s death, Barbara Sinatra would still come to Musso’s to order “sand dabs à la Sinatra” (read: nice and crispy).
