# Have you eaten at a store lunch counter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773 "2014-05-19T21:26:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/41 "2014-05-20T02:21:39Z")
Jimmy’s Food Store in Dallas. It’s the only place I know of where you can get an authentic Italian beef sandwich. It’s weird to because the store itself is so crammed with inventory you can barely stretch your arms out. And the tables are hidden behind crates of various items. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/42 "2014-05-20T02:25:19Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > We recently grabbed a bite to eat at one of those old-timey drugstore lunch counters where you can get a soda-fountain egg cream while waiting for your tuna melt. > > Turns out that egg creams taste awful. Well, I bet you wasn’t in New Yawk City! The only place to get a real genuine egg cream! 🙂 I used to get a hamburger and a coke for lunch at the Woolworth’s on Tremont Ave. in The Bronx in the 50s and 60s. It was probably one of the last stores to have natural wooden floors. They had such a good feel to them. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/43 "2014-05-20T02:34:16Z")
One of my aunts worked at the lunch counter at Kresge’s and another at Block’s, so whenever we went to the city, we went to see them there. The Rexall in my dad’s hometown also had a lunch counter, as did the one in my hometown. The one in my hometown served up some righteous chicken salad. ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/44 "2014-05-20T02:35:26Z")
My aunt used to take us to the\*\* Avalon Diner \*\*in River Oaks (Houston). We’d sit at the lunch counter and drink chocolate malts. You’d get a fountain glass PLUS the tall metal container that held another full glass. I haven’t been there in ages, but there are recent reviews online that mention the lunch counter. You can also find lunch counters at diners in most small Texas towns. I’ve eaten at many of them when traveling between Houston, Austin, Dallas, etc. The hamburgers at those places are the best. They always slap the buns down on the greasy cooktop, which just adds to the flavor. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/45 "2014-05-20T02:43:52Z")
Until the 70’s there was a small restaurant in the Walgreens at the now defunct Turfland Mall in Lexington. There was also a soda fountain at a nearby drug store. They closed it down in the mid-70’s and I don’t remember if it served lunch. The Frostee Freeze in Salt Lick KY is part diner and part country store. I don’t know if that counts when I was a kid we ate there a lot. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/46 "2014-05-20T02:57:10Z")
I remember eating at a Woolworths diner when I was a little kid, mid 1970s. No idea what I ordered, but I was a pretty fussy eater. I also at Lazarus. [Here’s one of them. I imagine as a kid we ate at the informal restauarant](http://departmentstoremuseum.blogspot.com/2010/05/f-r-lazarus-co.html) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/47 "2014-05-20T03:05:41Z")
Woolworth’s on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in 68-69 while I was going to Cal. I used to get the ham and lettuce sandwich on white toast with butter on the bread. It was great. I would order cherry Coke or chocolate Coke. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/48 "2014-05-20T03:09:45Z")
I’ve eaten at cafeterias in a Sears and a [Co-op](http://www.battlefordscoop.com/wps/portal/crs/battlefords/services/foodstore), but that was in the '80s. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/49 "2014-05-20T03:19:37Z")
Growing up, Woolworth’s, Kresge’s (yes, we had them), González-Padín (local retailer, oh bitter day those doors closed); even the first few years of JCP down here they had a lunch room. The lunch counters were the child-Delirious’ introduction to a proper club sandwich and to banana splits. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/50 "2014-05-20T03:23:55Z")
Woolworth’s, Save-On, and an actual restaurant in Macy’s (Houston Galleria). I’m pretty sure I got burgers and fries at a K-Mart. Reminded me of the cafeteria at the middle school I attended. Even had blue haired lunch ladies. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/51 "2014-05-20T03:39:11Z")
Woolworth’s down on Broadway in the Bronx, early 70’s. And once at Barney’s old Seventh Avenue store, 1980. I don’t know that it was even a lunch counter, exactly, it seemed more like a dressing room but a friend’s father was springing for PBJ’s all around, so how was I to worry? ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/52 "2014-05-20T03:47:41Z")
The Woolworth’s in Gadsden, AL had a lunch counter. I don’t specifically remember eating there but I’m pretty sure we did sometimes while shopping with my mother and grandmother. This was when I was a kid in the early-mid 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/53 "2014-05-20T03:55:11Z")
Woolworth’s in the Bronx, in the 1950s and early 1960s. We would occasionally get hot dogs or other treats there when my aunt went shopping. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/54 "2014-05-20T04:01:13Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Woolworth’s or W.T. Grants. Not sure if Grants had a lunch counter. They were both in the same shopping center. At the time there was only 1 small chain restaurant in my area before McDonalds came in. The W.T. Grants in Kansas City, Kansas had a long lunch counter with some sort of conveyor belt that would bring the food out on the top belt, while the dirty dishes would ride back on the bottom (to the best of my recollection). Still remember the hot chocolate with a dollop of whipped cream. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/55 "2014-05-20T05:17:28Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > The W.T. Grants in Kansas City, Kansas had a long lunch counter with some sort of conveyor belt that would bring the food out on the top belt, while the dirty dishes would ride back on the bottom (to the best of my recollection). Still remember the hot chocolate with a dollop of whipped cream. When I was a kid, there were competing pharmacies across the street from each other, Friedson’s Pharmacy and Gregory Drug. We never went into Gregory Drug because Friedson’s had the lunch counter staffed by a Lucy, an older black lady who knew the names of all the neighborhood kids. Also used to visit the Kresgee’s downtown. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/56 "2014-05-20T05:18:21Z")
I ate at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Ventura, CA in the '70s. We also had a department store called The Broadway at the Ventura mall, and they had a restaurant called “The Chafing Dish.” It wasn’t a lunch counter (more upscale) but it was inside the store. Also went to a coffee-shop thing inside Harrod’s in London when we were there in 1997. Had ice cream, but I think they had a full coffee-shop type menu. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/57 "2014-05-20T06:13:29Z")
Before Walmart added McDonalds/Subways to their stores, they did have (in at least some of them) snack bars. Popcorn, fountain drinks, hot dogs, dayglo cheez, frightening chili, microwaved burgers etc. Yes, I did eat there. This was the classic old small town Walmart so there were not a lot of choices for places to eat. Everyone was THRILLED when McDonalds originally came in. Then everyone bitched b/c it wasn’t a Subway. (The McDonalds in the store I worked in the longest didn’t have any of the ‘grilled’ chicken or Egg McMuffins. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/58 "2014-05-20T06:20:55Z")
The Woolworths on 5th & Morrison had a soda fountain on the north wall, a lunch counter on the east wall and a cafe on the south side, I must have eaten there at least once. ISTR eating in the cafe on the tenth floor of Meier & Frank kitty-corner from there. I have seen people eating in the Deli area next to Grocery at the Fred’s near here, and I have bought food there, but only to eat elsewhere. Several grocery stores around here have tables for eating deli in-store. But most recent, my mother and I had lunch at the place inside Nordstroms last time I was in Portland – a little fancier than a true lunch counter, though. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/59 "2014-05-20T06:27:29Z")
> [@BrassyPhrase](#): > > Before Walmart added McDonalds/Subways to their stores, they did have (in at least some of them) snack bars. Popcorn, fountain drinks, hot dogs, dayglo cheez, frightening chili, microwaved burgers etc. Yes, I did eat there. This was the classic old small town Walmart so there were not a lot of choices for places to eat. Everyone was THRILLED when McDonalds originally came in. > > Then everyone bitched b/c it wasn’t a Subway. (The McDonalds in the store I worked in the longest didn’t have any of the ‘grilled’ chicken or Egg McMuffins. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?) LOL. I remember when I was a kid, anytime my mom said she was going to K-mart I would be beside myself because I knew that meant I would be getting some of the best nachos ever known to mankind, along with a cherry Icee. (70’s) ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/60 "2014-05-20T08:17:27Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > The W.T. Grants in Kansas City, Kansas had a long lunch counter with some sort of conveyor belt that would bring the food out on the top belt, while the dirty dishes would ride back on the bottom (to the best of my recollection). Still remember the hot chocolate with a dollop of whipped cream. The W.T. Grants (or just “Grants”) my family used to shop at was in Carmichael, CA (a suburb of Sacramento). The cafeteria was called the “Bradford House”. I remember one time my little brother blew the paper wrapping off a straw at me and caused me to spill my grape soda all over my pants. It’s a good thing they were navy blue or else I wonder never been able to wear them again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773.md?page=4)