Soda shop

Interiors were often furnished with a large mirror behind a marble counter with goose-neck soda spouts, plus spinning stools, round marble-topped tables, and wireframe sweetheart chairs.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the jukeboxes in such establishments made them popular gathering spots for teenagers, as noted in the 1940s song "Jukebox Saturday Night" (tune by Paul McGrane and lyrics by Al Stillman): Pop Tate's Chocklit Shoppe is a fictional soda shop created by Bob Montana as a setting for the characters in his Archie comic books and comic strips.

In The Twilight Zone's "Walking Distance" episode, a soda shop is a framing device and a link to the past for Martin Sloan (Gig Young).

A malt shop also plays a key point in Blast from the Past, reflecting changes in the surface world while the main characters are underground, unaware of what has happened.

The protagonist of the young adult science fiction novel Have Spacesuit Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein works in a drug store soda fountain.