If we asked you to picture a diner, you’d likely imagine one of those shiny silver buildings with a bright neon sign out front. It might have an interior with a counter and stools as well as booths and Art Deco or Streamline Modern design.

We have a scattering of such diners in the South, both old and new, like the Sunliner Diner in Gulf Shores and Landmark Diner in Atlanta.

And, of course, Waffle House is a diner and Krystal started out that way.

But the quintessential 1950s diner is most often seen in the Northeast and later out West along Route 66.

See photos of vintage Alabama diners and cafés in the gallery at the top of this story.

How diners got started

Diners began as traveling food carts pulled by horses in the late 19th century.

According to an article by Stephanie Brandt on the American Dream Diner website, a teenager named Walter Scott created the first mobile food cart to sell sandwiches in Providence, R.I.

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The mobile carts known as “lunch cars” became popular in industrial areas where it was difficult for workers to find lunch.

By the 1900s, owners were setting up more permanent structures to feed the masses.

“These early diners were often small food trailers or converted train cars,” Brandt wrote. “They were particularly popular in rapidly growing urban areas, providing quick and affordable meals to workers.”

In the 1920s, a few entrepreneurs began creating larger diners that offered a wider variety of foods.

“After World War II, the demand for diners increased significantly. GI-bill-eligible servicemen returned from the war, and the economy shifted back to non-military production,” Brandt said.

After a long Depression between two world wars, Americans were finally prospering. They had money to eat out.

Diner manufacturers quickly cropped up to fill the need, making portable metal buildings that could be set up anywhere. By the 1950s, diners were ubiquitous.

They were known as places where people from all walks of life could dine together.

Jaya Saxena of Eater.com wrote: “The diner has been considered a model of culinary democratization in the American public consciousness since its earliest days as a horse-drawn food cart selling sandwiches and coffee.”

Diners in the South

Diners in the South are also known as places where people of all economic backgrounds meet, but they are defined more by food than the architecture of the building.

A diner is any place that offers comfort foods or meat-and-threes and doesn’t use fancy, white tablecloths.

They typically don’t serve alcohol. The names might have the word “diner” or “café” or “drive-in” in them.

Connecticut native Beth McKibben wrote in an article for Eater Atlanta that “there’s something about the Southern diner that captured my heart.”

McKibben even counts cafeterias such as Piccadilly as diners.

“What if I told you the South does have diners — you just know these establishments as Waffle Houses, meat and threes, Southern cafeterias … There, diner classics like patty melts, club sandwiches, and loaded fries cozy up to Southern cousins like fried chicken and catfish, buttermilk biscuits and gravy, creamy grits, and country ham. Bottomless coffee is a given.”

Traditional diners became less popular in the 1970s with the rise of fast food but in the South, we have maintained a close relationship with comfort foods.