Comebacks we'd like to see: #2 -- The in-store lunch counter
Filed under: Food
This post is part of our series ranking the top 25 bygone products and trends we'd like to see return.
Growing up in the Connecticut suburbs in the 1970s, a meal out at a restaurant meant one thing: A quick stop at a lunch counter while doing errands downtown with my mom (hear that? Downtown).
We didn't have Applebee's or Olive Garden. I don't think there was such a thing as a "children's menu" and I'm not sure McDonald's had even come up with the Happy Meal concept. Even if such things existed, my parents, who remain fans of the healthful home-cooked meal, would not have been early adopters, I'm sure.
But while shopping at Woolworth's or the family-run drug store in our town, my sister and I might just get cranky and whiny enough to convince my mother to buy us lunch or an afternoon snack at the store. Yes, right there, at the in-store lunch counter.There remains nothing quite like the thrill of the spontaneous grilled cheese or ice cream break at a lunch counter. Right up there with the adults on the swiveling stools, we'd place our own orders, watch the food prepared, joke with the friendly waitresses and even interact with colorful strangers sitting right next to us. It seemed anything could happen.
Woolworth's was the best. The old five-and-dime chain had a gimmick that was just about the most fun my eight-year-old self could imagine: You'd order the banana split and the waitress would pop a balloon overhead that contained a price tag. If you were lucky, you could pay just a penny for your dessert.
To be sure, you can still eat at the counter of many a traditional diner or family restaurant. My kids now are quite thrilled if I suggest we stop for an ice cream or hot chocolate at our local diner and we sit at the counter amidst all the din and clatter of a busy establishment.
However, I would argue, it's not quite as spontaneous and fun as the experience of eating at an in-store lunch counter -- especially when it took popping a balloon to find out the price of your dessert.
What long lost dining experiences do you miss?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
5-16-2008 @ 6:13AM
Paul D. said...
I remember having lunch at Silver's in West Haven. They had a sandwich counter there. The food was good, and very well priced for the time..probably around 1978~1980. Silver's is long gone, their building vacant. I think they are at the new Stop&Shop in town. Oh well...progress I guess.
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5-16-2008 @ 6:28AM
mntnelkhun said...
Truly, those were the days.S7. Shopping down town not the mall and eating at woolworths or the drug store.
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7-03-2008 @ 11:14AM
Delia Cochrane said...
Some of my BEST memories of Childhood were my trips to Woolworth's with Granny!! There was an ambiance to Woolworth's of the 1950s that can never be re-created. I looked foward to our stop at the lunch counter (this Woolworth's was on 14th Street in New York City-and another on 34th Street). And I always had their meatloaf sandwich, the taste of which still lingers in my brain cells, it was juicy and served on a hamburger bun. I have tried to recreate the recipe from my mind's tastebuds, for I miss it dearly. I also miss our waitress, who I also recall fondly. Even in New York City, we maintained a sense of family and community, even with the waitstaff. Something that is long gone today in the land of temporary part-time employees and way too-fast-food!
Who also recalls that ambiance of those old Woolworth stores? The wooden floors, counters, scent, and milk globe lighting fixtures? WONDERFUL!
5-17-2008 @ 6:37AM
Mona said...
I remember Wooworth's when I was little. My mom and I would stop there and have lunch. They had the best fries I've ever had in my life. I'm glad I grew up when I did.
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5-16-2008 @ 2:24PM
Cheri said...
Oh Mona, you really bring back the memories of Mother & I doing the same thing. And what about the hanging pictures of the food dishes and floats? Plus, I always found something I wanted Mom to buy me hanging on the shelves behind our swivel chairs.
Very special memories, thank you.
5-16-2008 @ 7:31AM
Jerry said...
Woolworths lunch counter burgers & fries,to this day,the best ever.
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5-16-2008 @ 7:36AM
Staceylin said...
I remember Wooworths too.. the hot dogs were the best.. cut legnthwise and then with the little notches cut the whole way down.. My Nana used to take me.
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5-16-2008 @ 7:37AM
Cocoa said...
The balloon pop!---what a wonderful memory! It is just shy of 20 years ago that I last had the pleasure. We had a Woolworth's in Baltimore/Pikesville that lasted until about 1990 that kept its lunch counter (the store completely around 1991-92). There was definitely a difference in experience at the lunch counters of yesteryear and restaurants today. Folks under 25 (in my area anyway) just don't know what they've missed!
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5-16-2008 @ 7:59AM
Scott said...
Cocoa, good to hear from a longtime Baltimoron!
I remeber when Towson Town Center was an outdoor strip shopping center, Reads drugstore had a lunch counter and when i didn't feel well as a child, mom took me there to get medicine, but the most healing thing of all was a "real" fountain coke. sweet any syrupy!
Hutzlers also had the classiest lunch counter and a darn fine grilled cheese.
But the lunch counter has gone the way of locally owned department stores and pharmacies.
If you are ever in Austin Texas, do visit Nau's Pharmacy on west Lynn St. It is a trip back in time, Burgers on the griddle and homemade shakes, even fountain cokes flow like days gone by.
5-16-2008 @ 7:39AM
jackie said...
I worked as a waitress for woolworth's during high school just before they finally decided to close the doors- best job I ever had to this day!
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5-16-2008 @ 7:50AM
Bob said...
I also remember the Woolworths lunch counters. I thought the hamburgers were the best around, and liked the convenience of just grabbing a stool (without needing or wanting a hostess to seat me). Also a good place to stop for a piece of pie.
As a kid, the five and dimes had lots of stuff I wanted. They had high quality toy cowboys and soldiers; baseball cards in celo-packs (where you could see the top player card and the back of the bottom card- my brother and I checked each pack for one of our favorite players or teams); balsa wood planes and kites; rubber baseballs for "fast pitching"; scrap books, yo-yos, and much, much more! I think I bought my fountain pen with aqua marine (light blue) ink refills at a 5 & 10 store.
If I had a time machine, I'd go back to the late fifties, early sixties, and find the nearest five and dime!
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5-16-2008 @ 8:08AM
mark said...
Man, this brings back memories. I remember very fondly the Woolworth's counter in Paterson, NJ. I'm 39 now and STILL have yet to find a single place that made fried chicken as good as what we used to get there.
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5-16-2008 @ 8:39AM
2020 Vision said...
Rich's Grocery Store, within sight and easy walking distance right down at the end of our road at the intersection with the main drag through town, had one of those enormous semi-circular fountain/lunch counters at the front of the store - and the REAL "Cherry Cokes" they served were the absolute BEST cherry cokes I ever had in my life! They were the absolute nirvana of treats in the hot southern summers, when air conditioning had to be advertised on signs outside of the businesses that had them, and most homes were not so equipped. I was 6 when we moved there and 8 when my parents bought/built a new house in another part of town, where the nearest store was several miles away. I missed that lunch/fountain counter a lot in the hot summertime.......
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5-16-2008 @ 8:39AM
Peggy said...
I was an assistant manager at a Woolworth's in New Jersey 20+ years ago. We had a lunch counter manager named Margaret. Both the manager and myself were not married and we did not get homecooked meals very often. Margaret knew this, so she was rather like a mother to us both, insisting that we sit down and eat, especially on Turkey Dinner Day. Margaret was rough, demanding, sometimes even unpleasant, but we knew she loved us when she made us eat that delicious turkey dinner.
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5-16-2008 @ 4:55PM
Princess said...
I used to work at the Woolworth's pretzel stand in Willingboro, N.J. from 1980-1982. It was in a plaza that has all been torn down now. This really brings back memories. We even had a Walgreens in the same plaza where I used to eat at their counter as well. Those were the good ole days!!!
5-16-2008 @ 8:46AM
shana said...
I do remember so much of that and, yes, Woolworths was the place to have a snack or lunch at their counter. I loved their egg salad sandwich, with lettuce and tomatoe on toasted white bread, sliced on an angle and served with pickle slices. They had the best tulip sundaes - real ice cream, 3 scoops, with butterscotch or chocolate topping, whipped cream and a red cherry on top. Great fries, large cokes, yummy cocoa. We ate there when we were shopping in downtown Miami, or out for a Saturday with the girls. Take the bus, meet at a certain place, try on clothes, then eat. I do remember that later on we would go to Walgreens that had a counter on the main floor, but restaurant style on the lower floor. You could get soup, burgers, practically all the delicious "junk food" and eating lunch was a given. Now, those were the good old days.
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5-16-2008 @ 9:18AM
Linda Clark said...
I see you remember the egg salad sandwich also. Where did you eat, what location? I am in the Alexandria, VA
area. Those were the good old days.
5-16-2008 @ 8:55AM
Diane said...
Oh the cheesecake at Woolworth's was the BEST! I wish I had that recipe. It was so fluffy!
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5-16-2008 @ 1:20PM
marthellen343 said...
My Mother was a Woolworth lunch counter manager, the very best one they had. I used to work for her, so I remember a lot more than most. I have the recipe for
Ice Box Cheesecake. My Mother also run their Bakery.
I remember their Orange Twists, but I don't have the recipe for those. They served mixed greens, which were
green cabbage leaves added to greens of the day. It really is funny. You go to the gracery store, and everybody peels off the green leaves and leaves them.
People just don't know what good food is today. I used to use a can of tuna fish with the fish oil as my dressing for a salad. You want fish oil today, you have to go to a health food store, and then it's in pills.
Live link marthellen343@aol.com
5-16-2008 @ 11:54PM
Diane said...
Oh, how can I get that recipe? I'd love to have it!