Before McDonald's and Starbucks, Americans packed these once-beloved lunch counters

Long before fast-food counters and coffee shops became fixtures of American life, luncheonettes gave generations of Americans an inexpensive place to grab a meal — and helped change where women could eat, work and socialize in public.

The casual restaurants serving simple, inexpensive meals, typically at a lunch counter, began emerging in the late 19th century. They boomed during the 1910s and 1920s and remained popular through the mid-20th century.

Woolworth's, S.H. Kress, S.S. Kresge, Walgreens and Liggett's were among the best-known names associated with lunch counters and luncheonettes in five-and-dime stores, drugstores and other retail establishments.

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Luncheonettes flourished as Americans increasingly moved into cities and paid employment, said Megan Elias, a curator of food and wine history at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

"They fit well with a society that was urbanizing and increasingly organized around paid employment rather than family farms," Elias told Fox News Digital. "Luncheonettes offered food that was affordable and predictable with the kinds of starches and fats people often find comforting."

Their menus typically featured straightforward fare, including roast meats, soups, sandwiches and regional dishes such as baked beans.

But luncheonettes offered more than inexpensive food.

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"Luncheonettes were affordable, and because they were associated with daytime, they had an atmosphere of respectability," Elias said. 

"Women and children, who were not generally welcomed in saloons or the dining rooms of men's clubs, could feel comfortable in luncheonettes."

They also gave women in the workforce a place to eat during the day, New York-based culinary historian Linda Pelaccio told Fox News Digital.

Prohibition and World War II further fueled their popularity as soda fountains and luncheonettes became social gathering places and more Americans sought inexpensive meals away from home.

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"They were popular in American society because they were quick and less expensive," Pelaccio said. "You could get a lunch and a cup of coffee … and be on your way."

But the same social changes that helped create the luncheonette eventually contributed to its decline.

As jobs shifted to suburban office parks, getting lunch increasingly meant driving, helping fuel the rise of fast-food and drive-thru restaurants, Elias said. Americans' tastes also expanded beyond the traditional luncheonette menu.

"[The luncheonette's decline] is a story of the diversification of the American diet, of increased comfort with foods from many different cultures," Elias said. "It's the story of a shift to car culture rather than walking to lunch."

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Malls, struggling downtowns, suburban life and a changing workforce further contributed to the luncheonette's disappearance, Andrew P. Haley, associate professor of American cultural history at the University of Southern Mississippi, told Fox News Digital.

"A big part was the change in women's roles," Haley said. 

"In the 1970s, more and more women worked. Sure, they might go to Woolworth's for lunch, but unlike when they were shopping downtown and needed a place to take a break, they now could take a lunch to work — and often choose healthier foods, diet food and less expensive foods."

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Yet for those who remember them, luncheonettes can still evoke something increasingly difficult to find, Elias said, because "sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers at the lunch counter created a sense of community."

Haley is less convinced that people are nostalgic for actual luncheonettes rather than for an idealized version of such establishments.

"Nostalgic decor might allow us to imagine for an instant that we are regaining community gathering spaces, but the pre-existing community ties that made those spaces collective is no longer there," Haley said.