Alunch counter orluncheonette is a smallrestaurant, similar to adiner, where thepatron sits on astool on one side of the counter and theserver serves food from the opposite side of the counter, where thekitchen orfood preparation area is located. As the name suggests, they were primarily used for thelunch meal. Lunch counters were once commonly located insidevariety stores (also known as "five and dimes", "five and tens", or "dimestores"),pharmacies, anddepartment stores in theUnited States throughout the 20th century. The intent of the lunch counter in a store was to profit from serving hungry shoppers, and to attract people to the store so that they might buy merchandise.
Woolworth's, an early five and dime store chain, opened their first luncheonette inNew Albany, Indiana, around 1923, and expanded rapidly from there.[1] Lunch counters were often found in other dimestores, likeNewberry's,S. H. Kress,H.L. Green,W.T. Grant,McLellan's orMcCrory's. Members of the retail staff who had taken lunch counter training would staff the counter during lunch time. A lunch counter was built into dime-stores as late as the 1950s. However, into the 1960s, they lost popularity tofast food restaurants, such asMcDonald's, andconvenience stores, such as7-Eleven.
Typical foods served were hot and cold sandwiches (such asham and cheese,grilled cheese,BLT,patty melt, andegg salad),soups,pie,ice cream (includingsundaes,ice cream sodas, andmilkshakes),soda,coffee, andhot chocolate.
Integrating lunch counters in theSouthern United States through the use ofsit-in political protests in the 1960s was a major accomplishment of thecivil rights movement. These involvedAfrican Americans and their supporters sitting at the lunch counter in areas designated for "whites only", insisting that they be served food and beverages. The Woolworth's lunch counter inGreensboro, North Carolina, was the site ofone of the first such sit-ins in 1960. In recognition of its significance, part of the Greensboro lunch counter has been installed at theSmithsonian Institution'sNational Museum of American History, while the former Woolworth's building is now the site ofInternational Civil Rights Center and Museum.
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