lunch counter culture

i used to dodge into woolworths in the 70s in the loop to get out of the snow and get a tuna melt! was that just a woolworths thing, or did those places dot the city and basements of other chain stores.. anyone know any history or what else they served??

I was known to get a quick hot turkey sandwich at a loop Walgreens in my youth.

In the 60s, at the corner of Vallette and York in Elmhurst, Rexall Drugs (a chain whose signs still turn up now and again around Chicago) had a lunch counter where you could get the standard items (burgers, salads, though perhaps not so fancy an item as the turkey sandwich stevez mentions).

I think food counters in drug stores and "five and dimes" used to be quite common -- much less so now.

Hammond

Most of the places that HAD lunch counters - Kress, Newberry's, Woolworths, etc. were of the " 5 and 10s."

In the last five years, I have had perhaps 3-4 meals at drug store counters.

jlawrence01 wrote:Most of the places that HAD lunch counters - Kress, Newberry's, Woolworths, etc. were of the " 5 and 10s."

In the last five years, I have had perhaps 3-4 meals at drug store counters.

Must admit, I don't know Newberry's.

Just curious: where, locally, have you had meals at drug store counters?

Hammond

mmmmmmmmm hamburger and french fries at the Walgreen's in Hammond ,IN during the early 60's. I wonder what happened to the kid who used to walk around with the glasses and that red ryder rifle.

Locally, nowhere. For the past six months, I have been flying out of Midway twice a month to various locations - Nashville, Kingsville, TX, etc. and other small southern towns that still have pharmacies with luncheonettes.

jlawrence01 wrote:Locally, nowhere. For the past six months, I have been flying out of Midway twice a month to various locations - Nashville, Kingsville, TX, etc. and other small southern towns that still have pharmacies with luncheonettes.

Well, that's interesting and predictable but not something I knew. It makes sense, though: the smaller the population in a given location, the more likely that you'll have "everything stores" that vend pharmaceuticals, hefty bags and hamburgers. At least, that seems like it could be the case...

Hammond[/quote]


Edit note: David, sorry, while attempting to quote your post, I think I hit edit. If you saved, can you please repost? But, I think I have it back the way it was...you may delete this note if it is back to your original post

pd

The last local drug store counter meal I had locally was at the Woolworth's at Harlem/Irving Plaza. I'm sure I had a patty melt and a shake and it was delicious.

-ramon

David Hammond wrote:

jlawrence01 wrote:Locally, nowhere. For the past six months, I have been flying out of Midway twice a month to various locations - Nashville, Kingsville, TX, etc. and other small southern towns that still have pharmacies with luncheonettes.

Well, that's interesting and predictable but not something I knew. It makes sense, though: the smaller the population in a given location, the more likely that you'll have "everything stores" that vend pharmaceuticals, hefty bags and hamburgers. At least, that seems like it could be the case...

Hammond

The closest I have come across lately was an old Rexall store in Saugatuck, MI. I didn't actually eat there, but is was in full operation when I stopped in to buy some batteries and postcards.

Going back to my notes, the lunch counter was at Harrel's Kingville Pharmacy in Kingsville, TX. Here is the http://harrels.com/index.htm website.

They offer a menu similar to the old Woolworth's menu with a number of Mexican specialties and a full soda fountain.

What they have done to survive is that they limit themselves to the most profitable items - prescription drugs, cards and gifts, and the lunch counter where at leat half of the seats are occupies all day long.

I believe that I encountered another one earlier this year in Dayton, TN but it was not remarkable in any way.

The last time I was at a stand up lunch counter was at Woolworth's at 91st and Commercial. As a teenager I would get a slice of pizza and a coke that came in a paper cone cup that went into a plastic holder with a paper straw for 65 cents.

For some reason, the milk shakes served at lunch counters, brought to you in the tin they were shooken-up in, from which you poured the mixture into your glass, leaving enough in the frosty tin for practically another full glassful when you were done with the first one, tasted better than any other milk shakes known to man.

Well, that's interesting and predictable but not something I knew. It makes sense, though: the smaller the population in a given location, the more likely that you'll have "everything stores" that vend pharmaceuticals, hefty bags and hamburgers. At least, that seems like it could be the case...

Hammond

Oh...like I need another reason to boycott Wal-mart for ruining downtown retail communities I have several copies of Walmart: THe High Cost of Low Pricesif anyone wants to borrow a copy.

Now, back to our regualrly scheduled topic...

I remember the lunch counter at the back of Prange's (changed to Yonkers in 80's) on Eigth in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. German rye and salt crusted rolls are the most memorable.

Many of these counters served the employee's as well. At Trader Vic's the other night and discussing the same, we remembered fondly the Palmer House coffe shop, which I was always told used to be the employee's lunch room....and their Friday fish fries with neon green coleslaw. Yum.




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We had a little news stand with a lunch counter back in Algonquin in my teen years in the early 60's. I probably had a burger but I mostly remember drinking Green River or having a phosphate and talking to my friend who worked at the counter.

David Hammond wrote:, that's interesting and predictable but not something I knew. It makes sense, though: the smaller the population in a given location, the more likely that you'll have "everything stores" that vend pharmaceuticals, hefty bags and hamburgers. At least, that seems like it could be the case...

Hammond

While it is popular to blame WalMart for the closure of every small business, the decline of the small pharmacy (and bakery and butcher shop and florist shop) can be attributed to two factors. First, all the major groceries chains (read Krogers, Albertsons, Safeway) as well as the discounters all added pharmacies. Second, at nearly the same time, many major health plans began to offer pharmaceutical coverage which forced you to buy at the various chains. After all, it is easier to negotiate coverages with chains than individuals.

My grandfather, a florist, always complained that Kroger's sold many flowers below his cost and refused to sell his shop to a family member as the business was gravitating to "weddings and funerals".

Now I have a question. How many of you would **REALLY** eat at a Woolworth's lunch counter (or its equivalent) if one were to magically appear in the Loop?? And second, how often??

jlawrence01 wrote:Now I have a question. How many of you would **REALLY** eat at a Woolworth's lunch counter (or its equivalent) if one were to magically appear in the Loop?? And second, how often??

I would do it once in a while as a nostalgic novelty. The food was never all that great to begin with (other than the aformentioned fountain treats).

If there were still lunch counters, I seriously doubt I'd bother to eat at one. This thread is interesting though for reasons beyond culinary merit or the evils of big business.

Lunch counters were places where the working man could get a decent belly-full sans lunch pail (and sans beer pail) at a cheap price. Lunch counters were places of gossip and politics. Lunch counters were a central issue of the civil rights movement.

Lunch counters are history.

-ramon

I remember lunch counters growing up in Lawrence, KS. Walking home from Jr. High, everyone stopped off at this one drugstore's lunch counter, hung out, drank cherry, vanilla, lemon, chocolate cokes or limeade, etc. plus fries after school.

I think there are a lot of similarities between the lunch counter and the counters at many diners. They were all filled with characters.

The lunch counter at the drug store in Saugatuck has GREAT fountain treats!

Mid to late sixes went to Woolworths in Hillside Center after school, slice of pizza was 16 cents 15 plus 1 for tax. (My first experience with Pizza cut in a large triangle)
As an aside, an Italian beef with sweet peppers at Pepe's at Butterfield & Wolf was 50 cents. Giardinieria was free on the counter.

I'm not only old enough to remember lunch counters, but I would meet my husband to be at the lunch counter at Steinways at Jackson & Crawford (now Pulaski) in the mid 50's. Going later than that, I had many a lunch at Walgreens on Devon in the 60"s with the baby VI or lunch at the Woolworth Counter at Devon and Western even later than that. It just was the place for lunch, cheap and convenient. Fast food places were not on every corner then and we walked didn't drive everywhere so no drive thru's either. Life was simplier then.
Paulette

Lunch counters were a central issue of the civil rights movement.

Lunch counters are history.

. . . and if you want to visit the most famous of these (altho you won't be served anything there nowadays no matter who you are), it's at the Smithsonian's American History Museum in DC.


http://www.smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/o ... .cfm?ID=42

Several diners and lunch counters can be found at the Culinary Archives & Museum at Johnson & Wales is located at 315 Harborside Boulevard in the Providence, RI.

http://www.culinary.org/directions/directions.html

As a geezer, I too remember lunch counters, including ones in Woolworth's stores (and, I think, Kreske's... sound right?)... all that back in Jersey... In New York, there were the Chock-ful-o-Nuts places which were nothing but one large and snake-like lunch counter... great pea soup, grilled ham and cheese, simple stuff that i still associate with cold days in New York... There was one on the corner of 116th and Broadway that I visited regularly when I was in college...

From my early years in Chicago, when I lived in Hyde Park, I remember well the counter scene at the Woolworth's over by the HP Coop. I never ate there but whenever I stopped in the store to buy whatever -- it was an extremely useful store -- it always seemed like there was a small but friendly group of folks at the counter interacting in a familiar way with the couple of women behind the counter.

There was definitely a sense of loss in the community when that Woolworth's went out of business... And I'm sure that was especially so for the lunch counter regulars...

Antonius

When I first moved to Highland Park in the early 1970's, we boasted lunch counters at both Walgreen's and Woolworth's across the street from each other. Yep, when people tell me how upscale Highland Park is, I tell them about the good old days!

I fully remember my best friend Cathy and I (wonder WHY I am 2?) getting cokes at the lunch counter. It was our first time ever calculating a tip, which really was a challenge. Our drinks with tax was around 25 cents. We both knew 10% was the correct tip, but 3 cents seemed too high and 2 cents too little. You don't know how much we puzzled over this tip. My vague feeling is we left 2 cents because we knew it wasn't good to overtip. Please note we were 10 or 11 years old without much more information than overhearing our Father's talk.

For me, back in the sixties it was downstairs at Neisner's on 48th and Ashland.

Years later, while living in South Lakeview, I remember the outcry when the Woolworths on Lincoln and Belmont closed their counter. The neighberhood was not remotely as gentrified as it is now.

I was a patron of lunch counters, from the late-50's until their demise in Chicago. Walgreens, Woolworths, a small 5 and 10.

I travel to Acapulco and Mexico City with some regularity and the Woolworth's in both those cities still have lunch counters. I lived in Des Moines, Iowa in the early 1990's and some of the Dahl's supermarket stores had lunch counters.

The comment that lunch counters are frequented by "characters" is right on the money. I think we need more characters, not less . . . front and center . . . in this world.

Weiboldts in Oak Park had a lunch counter as well

I, too, am one of those U of C alums who frequented the Hyde Park Woolworth's for various necessities, but never ate at the lunch counter.

A great local place in Lexington, KY is Wheeler's Pharmacy, still owned and run by the Wheeler family. It's a real community institution. The food is nothing special, really; it's all about the atmosphere. And it's not just old people hanging out drinking coffee- the place is full of dads/kids and teenagers on Saturday mornings.
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