When I first started working in San Francisco in 1980, there was a large Woolworth’s on the corner by the cable car turnaround at the foot of Powell Street (where The Gap is now). They had a lunch counter, and I ate there occasionally. Tuna melt, club sandwich, that sort of thing.
Much, much earlier, back around 1960, I believe I used to occasionally eat at one of the downtown stores’ lunch counters in Portland, possibly S H Kress or something similar. But I have only the haziest memories of it (I would have been only somewhere around 10-12 years old at the time).
There was a counter like that in Center City in Philadelphia in the 70s. I’d eat lunch there when I had to work on Saturdays. During the week it was constantly packed and I couldn’t get there early enough to get a seat.
Wise’s drug store in Gainesville, FL, but they closed in 2009. There’s actually a good article here about the rise and fall of that family owned drug store with a lunch counter.
These days my kids like the food at Target. Chacun à son goût.
When I went to Elizabethtown College in PA in the early-to-mid-nineties, they had a Rexall in town with a lunch counter. I remember being surprised because I thought they’d gone the way of the dodo (both Rexall and drugstore lunch counters).
I ate at a drugstore lunch counter in my hometown. I loved the grilled sandwiches. The cook had a brush he dipped in melted butter and wiped the bread with. They were so good.
There was a similar drugstore across the street from my University. It wasn’t as good, and very few students ate there. It closed in the early 90’s.
My local Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Mount Olive, North Carolina. A cafeteria style arrangement with nearby tables. Basic American staples like meat loaf, fried chicken, and the like. Surprisingly good, large portions, attractive pricing. A favorite with shift workers from the local plywood mill and pickle plant.
I recall, when I was very small, a lunch counter in our local Safeway grocery store. My Dad and I would do the grocery shopping on Saturdays, and we’d stop at the lunch counter on our shopping trips. We never ate anything–Dad would have coffee and I would get a Coke–but it was a lunch counter, definitely. I had forgotten about supermarket lunch counters–thanks for reminding me.
Otherwise? I had a few meals at Eaton’s Cafeteria in Toronto, in the Eaton’s department store in the Eaton Centre; and a couple at Kresge’s, just sitting at the counter. Kresge’s beat Eaton’s, at least in the hot roast beef sandwich and fries department.
There was one drug store in my hometown that had a lunch counter. My sister worked there for a while so we stopped in from time to time.
More recently, just last fall I ate several meals at the lunch counter at an Exito department store in Colombia. It was comida tipica, nothing fancy. Chicken and rice served with arepas was the normal fare. No burgers or fries at all on the menu there.
Where I live, it’s fairly common for supermarkets to have restaurant areas where you can order food over-the-counter and sit down (or take out). In addition to the basic American food items you mentioned, there are typically Asian entrées, soups, deli-style sandwiches, a salad bar, and pizza.