History Main / MaltShop

There ''is'' some historical basis to these places; during most of the early-[[WorldWarTwo post-war]] era, from the mid-1940s to the 1950s, very few modern "chain" fast-food places were in business yet and the infrastructure to support them was still being built. As a result, there were a ''lot'' of privately-owned, short-order diner-style restaurants that served things like burgers and non-alcoholic malted beverages. Not all of them were hopping, hip places where the kids hung out, but pick a major suburb and you could probably find at least one. Many of the most successful ones would go on to ''become'' the major chains of TheSeventies and TheEighties, driving their smaller competitors out of business.

* Parodied in ''Film/TopSecret'', when Nick Rivers and the Resistance fighters end up in a 1950s-style malt shop...in the middle of EastGermany. Includes a dance number to jukebox music.

* Bizarrely, the first round of time travel on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', where Dean sees his youthful parents-to-be on a date to one of these...in ''1973''. Possibly the influence of her protective father.

* Although many of them have completely abandoned the "traditional" trappings, honestly, pick a famous fast-food chain today; an overwhelming number of them began life in, essentially, this format with a single location. Prominent examples are UsefulNotes/McDonalds, Wendy's, Jack-in-the-Box...

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Pop Tate's Choclit Shoppe in ''[[Franchise/ArchieComics Archie]]''.

[[folder: Film ]]

* Mel's Drive-In from ''Film/AmericanGraffiti''
* Lou's Café from ''Film/BackToTheFuture''

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Pinball ]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

The GreasySpoon is the MaltShop's less romanticized (but equally conventionalized) cousin. Watch out for the teenagers who are SweetheartSipping or the possible eruption of a DinerBrawl. In UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} and UsefulNotes/NewZealand, and in Great Britain in TheFifties, these places were traditionally known as 'milk bars'.

Obligatory bit of [[UsefulNotes/TheFifties 1950s]] PopularHistory. All the kids [[LocalHangout hang out]] here, play {{Pinball}}, and listen to the jukebox play NothingButHits. Carhops are optional. The Malt Shop may also be referred to as a diner, a soda fountain, a drug store or a café but the general look is always basically the same. In a TimeTravel story ending up in TheFifties, often the first place gone into after the MisterSandmanSequence (as in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', for example).

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* Lou's Café from ''Film/BackToTheFuture''

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:Music]]

[[AC:{{Pinball}}]]

[[AC:{{Theatre}}]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* The ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' gang visited these quite a bit in parts of the plot that would normally have taken them to a bar. Also, the Scooby gang would often start an episode in a malt shop (in the 1969–80 series), when they weren't on a beach.

[[AC:RealLife]]

The GreasySpoon is the MaltShop's less romanticized (but equally conventionalized) cousin. Watch out for the teenagers who are SweetheartSipping or the possible eruption of a DinerBrawl. In {{Australia}} and NewZealand, and in Great Britain in TheFifties, these places were traditionally known as 'milk bars'.

The GreasySpoon is the MaltShop's less romanticized (but equally conventionalized) cousin. Watch out for the teenagers who are SweetheartSipping or the possible eruption of a DinerBrawl. In {{Australia}} and NewZealand, and in Great Britain in the NineteenFifties, these places were traditionally known as 'milk bars'.

The GreasySpoon is the MaltShop's less romanticized (but equally conventionalized) cousin. Watch out for the teenagers who are SweetheartSipping or the possible eruption of a DinerBrawl. In {{Australia}} and NewZealand, these places are traditionally known as 'milk bars'.

The GreasySpoon is the MaltShop's less romanticized (but equally conventionalized) cousin. Watch out for the teenagers who are SweetheartSipping or the possible eruption of a DinerBrawl.

* Marty's Malt Shop in ''Series/OurMissBrooks''. It's across the street from Madison High, and is virtually an institution among the students and faculty.

* Marty's Malt Shop in ''Radio/OurMissBrooks''

* Marty's Malt Shop in ''Radio/OurMissBrooks''. It's across the street from Madison High, and is virtually an institution among the students and faculty.

* ''VideoGame/NancyDrew Secrets Can Kill'' has such a restaurant, albeit not a very good one. Their menu has some rather [[CordonBleughChef disturbing items]], the staff never notices you entering the kitchen, [[NoOshaCompliance and their solution for patching a leaking gas line is to prop the pipe up with a monkey wrench]].

* In the ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperheroes'' SomethingCompletelyDifferent issue where the time-lost Legionnaires are relocated to a small town in the fifties, with memories to match, Cosmic Boy's dad runs the malt shop.

* The RetroUniverse of Fawcett City in Creator/DCComics' ''Power of Shazam'' includeed a malt shop (possibly the same one from Captain Marvel's initial ''Whiz Comics'' appearances). It even played a plot point in the recent ''Black Adam'' miniseries.

Obligatory bit of [[TheFifties 1950s]] PopularHistory. All the kids [[LocalHangout hang out]] here, play {{Pinball}}, and listen to the jukebox play NothingButHits. Carhops are optional. The Malt Shop may also be referred to as a diner, a soda fountain, a drug store or a café but the general look is always basically the same. In a TimeTravel story ending up in TheFifties, often the first place gone into after the MisterSandmanSequence (as in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', for example).

* Pop Tate's Choclit Shoppe in [[ArchieComics Archie]].
* The RetroUniverse of Fawcett City in DCComics' ''Power Of Shazam'' includeed a malt shop (possibly the same one from Captain Marvel's initial ''Whiz Comics'' appearances). It even played a plot point in the recent ''Black Adam'' miniseries.
* Kitty Pryde and Storm bond over milkshakes at ''The Malt Shoppe'' in Uncanny ComicBook/{{X-Men}} #130.

* One appears at the beginning of ''Film/SchoolTies''

* Arnold's from ''HappyDays''
* The Pie Hole in ''PushingDaisies'' resembles one of these, in keeping with the show's RetroUniverse aesthetic.
* The Groovy Smoothie in ''{{iCarly}}'' is a modernised version, used as the LocalHangout. It is frequently mentioned early on but doesn't actually appear until halfway through the second season.

* In season 3 of ''PunkyBrewster'', Henry sells his photography shop and opens a little restaurant he names "Punky's Place."

[[AC:Theatre]]

[[AC:WebComics]]
* [[AsianStoreOwner Akbar's]] Malt Shop in ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' Akbar seems to be one of the saner people in the town.

* The ''ScoobyDoo'' gang visited these quite a bit in parts of the plot that would normally have taken them to a bar. Also, the Scooby gang would often start an episode in a malt shop (in the 1969-80 show), when they weren't on a beach.
* {{Futurama}} had this in their time travel episode to 1945.
* An episode of FamilyGuy features a restaurant with a retro 50s malt shop motif. Cleveland, being black, was not allowed to enter.
* Seen in the ''SchoolhouseRock'' segment "A Noun is a Person, Place, or Thing" as the narrator engages in some SweetheartSipping with her "[[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend best friend]]."

* Although many of them have completely abandoned the "traditional" trappings, honestly, pick a famous fast-food chain today; an overwhelming number of them began life in, essentially, this format with a single location. Prominent examples include McDonalds, Wendy's, Jack-in-the-Box...
* Johnny Rockets, a national chain of sit-down hamburger restaurants with a 1950s motif, including waitpersons with paper hats and checkered aprons, chrome finish on ''everything'', and 5-cent jukeboxes.
* Sonic Drive-In is a chain of drive-in diners that began in the '50s and has survived and thrived into the present day, complete with carhops who wear roller skates. In Northern cities, they're known primarily for the fact that they advertise even though the nearest Sonic may be tens or even hundreds of miles away (Northern weather isn't that conductive to drive-in diners).
* The Classic 50s is a one-of-a-kind drive-in in Norman, Oklahoma that is more or less identical to Sonic except even ''more'' nostalgic of the 1950s. Kids meals even come in cardboard replicas of classic cars!
* There is one down in Hillsboro, OR. That area is the sort of place where specialty businesses crowd around.
* The A&W chain of fast-food joints have become known for marketing based on nostalgia: They base many of their commercials, and even the interior on the "classic fast food joint" look of TheFifties. Of course, it's not a MaltShop ''per se'', but it has many elements of one, including ice cream/root beer floats and nostalgic black and white photos on the walls. The motif is broken a little at co-branded locations as the design elements have to share space with boating materials (Long John Silvers) or pictures of Colonel Sanders.
* Route 66 lives and breaths 50's nostalgia, so there are plenty of old drive-ins and malt shops along the route to cater to tourists.
* Even the UK gets in on the act with the Ed's Easy Diner chain, which seems to toe the line between being a nostalgia cafe based on a malt shop, and being an affectionate parody of one. It has the jukeboxes, art-deco motif and malt shakes, but they also have a menu of practically nothing but variations on hotdogs, chilli and burgers, signs on the walls such as 'No dancing in the aisles', and the shakes themselves are enormous.
* Ruby's Diner is a chain based on this motif, albeit more from TheForties.

-->-'''Series/{{Community}}'''

* Mel's Drive-In from ''AmericanGraffiti''

* Naturally, one of these shows up in ''{{Pleasantville}}''.

* A futuristic version of one of these appears in ''[[StarWars Attack of the Clones]]'', complete with a robot waitress and a fat Italian-American-sounding alien in an apron in the kitchen. [[WordOfGod George Lucas]] has stated that this is an homage to his earlier ''AmericanGraffiti''.

* The film of ''TheMusicMan'' sets one of its scenes in an ice cream parlor. The movie is from 1962, though the musical is set 50 years before that.
* ''ThingsToDoInDenverWhenYoureDead'' is narrated by a character in a malt shop, which also plays a minor role in the story.
* This is where [[GunFu Smith]] and the HookerWithAHeartOfGold meet up at the end of ShootEmUp.