Classic Diners & Drive-Ins

Carhops were the servers at drive-in restaurants who brought food directly to customers waiting in their cars. The name likely came from the way they would hop onto the running boards of cars.

Tabletop jukebox selectors (called Seeburg Wall-O-Matics) were placed right in diner booths, allowing customers to pick songs for a nickel or dime while they ate.

Soda fountains were a central feature of diners and drugstores, where a 'soda jerk' would mix carbonated water with flavored syrups to create drinks right at the counter.

A&W was founded by Roy Allen in 1919 in Lodi, California. The name came from partners Allen and Frank Wright. Their frosty mugs of root beer became an American icon.

The term 'soda jerk' came from the jerking motion used to pull the tap handles on the soda fountain to dispense carbonated water. It was a common job for young people in the 1940s and 50s.

Howard Johnson's, often called HoJo's, was famous for its distinctive orange roofs and 28 flavors of ice cream. At its peak in the 1960s and 70s, it was the largest restaurant chain in the United States.

'Adam and Eve on a raft' was diner shorthand for two poached eggs on toast. If the cook was told to 'wreck 'em,' it meant to scramble the eggs instead.

Sonic Drive-In, founded in 1953 in Shawnee, Oklahoma (originally called Top Hat Drive-In), is the largest drive-in restaurant chain in the United States and is known for its skating carhops.

The ice cream sundae became a classic diner staple. Its origins are debated, but it was a soda fountain favorite by the early 1900s and remained a beloved treat throughout the diner era.

The first drive-in movie theater was opened by Richard Hollingshead on June 6, 1933, in Camden, New Jersey. It could accommodate about 400 cars and charged 25 cents per car plus 25 cents per person.

The word 'diner' comes from railroad dining cars. Early lunch wagons were modeled after these cars, and by the 1920s, manufacturers were building prefabricated restaurants that resembled them, which became known as diners.

'Burn one all the way' was diner shorthand for a hamburger with all available toppings — lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and condiments. 'Burn one' meant a hamburger on the grill.

Kullman Industries, founded in 1927 in Newark, New Jersey, became the most prolific diner manufacturer in the country. They built thousands of stainless steel diners that became symbols of Americana.

Various intercom and speaker systems were developed for drive-ins, but the original two-way speaker concept was popularized in the late 1940s and 50s. Companies like TeleTray and Aut-O-Hop developed systems that let customers place orders without a carhop coming to the car.

Bob Wian created the Big Boy double-deck hamburger in 1936 at his diner in Glendale, California. The Big Boy restaurant chain it spawned, with its iconic chubby mascot, became one of America's most recognizable diner brands.