I barely remember these things, they disappeared I think when I was still a little kid.
They got started in NYC in 1908 and America in 1902. I was surprised by this and thought they were a post war (WWII) thing.
Wiki confirms they were all but gone by the 70s.
So do you remember them?
Did you like them?
What was the food like?
Nearly forgot, I was watching a PBS program on Edward Hopper yesterday:
I’ve never seen one. I’ve heard that the food could be quite good, though.
I ate at a few in the 60s.
Used to go all the time to the one in Philly (Chestnut Street?) with my grandfather. Loved the mac and cheese and the hard rolls.
I’ve ate at one in the early 70’s. I was about 8 or 9.
Crime and vandalism would be a concern. Especially if there is no attendant. Keeping the tables clean is another issue. People are so lazy they don’t clear trash off the table.
I remember them from the 1960s and early 1970s. I’ve eaten at ones in NYC. the food was pretty good, and served on real plates. It was a very different experience from fast food.
They tried to start them up again a few years ago in NYC, but the idea didn’t take off:
I ate at a Horn and Hardart in Manhattan at least once. Clean, well-attended, mediocre food at best (but way better than the kind of sandwiches and pastry you get out of vending machines currently).
As for ambience, forget it. Automats are not something I’m nostalgic over.
Yes. The first place I ever ate by myself, around 1965, was the Automat on 42nd Street in New York. It lasted there until the late '80s at least - when my wife and I were staying in New York around then, we passed it with a bar mitzvah reception inside.
Here is a link to a book about Automats which I got my wife when it came out. She’s from Philly, and they had them also.
I didn’t have an Automat near where I lived in Queens, but we did have a Horn & Hardart restaurant (a cafeteria) and a day old store.
In 1987 or 1988, I went to Manhattan for a college journalism convention. One day, we went to the Horn & Hardart Automat for lunch. As I was sitting there eating, I noticed a large group of Japanese men and women, all wearing gold jackets and all with cameras around their necks, disembarking from a coach bus. It was a busload of Japanese Century 21 agents. I was greatly amused as I thought it was the quintessential New York experience. (On the other hand, I don’t remember anything at all about the food.)
There are plenty of them in the Netherlands. You can find them in gas stations, train stations, and some locations in the streets of the big cities (Rotterdam, for instance). They are mostly from the chain “FEBO”. Some photos:
http://www.theredstove.com/photos/uncategorized/automat.jpg
http://www.wayn.com/waynphotos.html?wci=photo&photo_key=19013737&member=7894924#pkey=19013737
This. I ate at one near Centraal in Amsterdam just to say I did and the food…well, I don’t even remember what I ate but I’m pretty sure it was beige-ish brown.
I ate in a couple when I was a kid when we visited NYC. I remember the little doors with the food behind them, and a slot to put money (you could get a sandwich for 50 cents in those days). You opened the door and took your food.
I was most impressed by watching them restock – the tray holding the food was circular like a series of disks on a pole. When turned, the silver in the back would cover the glass door as they put food on the tray. Then they’d spin it around. Often, then’d do an entire column at a time.
There were huge urns built into the wall for coffee. You’d grab a cup, put in your dime, and get a cup.
It was a high point of our trips to NYC.
The food? I don’t really remember. I know I’d eat it, and I was pretty picky back then. The desserts looked good and I think I liked them.
It was different from the sandwich machines because they did have hot food like meatloaf. The trays were heated or refrigerated as necessary.
Yes it was on Chestnut, south side somewhere around 8th St. AFAIK, it was the only automat in Philly, although there were plenty of H&H’s mostly cafeteria style (there were three, I think, with waitress services, one at 54th and City Line). In the 40s and early 5os, my mother was severely agoraphobic (she got over it by around '55) and would shop by phone from Gimbels mostly, they would deliver using their own delivery trucks and every Saturday (I heavily exaggerate here, but it seems like it was every Saturday) I would return most of the crap she bought to the store. Then I treated myself to a meal at the automatic. My recollection is that the food was pretty mediocre. Same with the cafeterias. The waitress-served places might have been a bit better. I don’t think I was in an automat after the early 50s. Coffee was a nickel in those days.
PDQ Bach invented an instrument he called a hardart and wrote a concerto for horn and hardart.
Yup ate in a Horn and Hardart in Manhattan in 1969. I don’t really have a memory of the food being something special, I can’t even remember what I had. I remember the japanese place [Saito East], Pen and Pencil and a lunch at IIRC Peacock Alley.
My mother’s parents lived in Manhattan from about 1965 to '75, and we went to a Horn & Hardart during our 1972 visit to New York. My dad thought my siblings and I would think the restaurant was so cool, but we weren’t impressed. I had an average BLT. The atmosphere was kind of depressing – several “bag ladies” who looked as if they had been sitting there for hours nursing cups of coffee.
I ate at one during a family trip to New York City when I was young. I remember thinking it was pretty cool.
After I moved to NYC in 1970, I had lunch in an Automat five times a week. The food was basic, but excellent. They had the best chicken pot pie, baked beans and coffee. The coffee was 15 cents. They also had some kind of pie . . . I think it was lemon meringue.
Why can’t we have them now? I would welcome them being unemployed and buying crappy sandwiches at 7-11 for $4.50. Maybe we could do it with food cards now (like laundry cards)? I like how you could just spend on individual items instead of buying a combo nowadays. So that $4.50 could be a sandwich, chips and soda.
What made them become closed or unpopular?
My mum loved them, she used to long for them to come back.
I guess they don’t have them now, as others have said, it’s not cost effective. McDonalds really revolutionized food service. And I don’t mean just the food itself but the whole process of buying the food from farms and abattoirs to the point of delivery to the customer.
That model was so efficent, you can see it’s copied in most other service industries
I remember now. Monday through Thursday, I had macaroni & cheese and baked beans. Friday was pay day, so I could afford to get chicken pot pie. The little doors took nickels, and there was a booth with a lady who exchanged your money for nickels. I always looked for buffalo nickels, and occasionally found one (this was in 1964).
Yes, this is what it was like living in NYC, and working for minimum wage.
There was an Automat at (I think) 5th Avenue and 34th, around the corner from the Empire State Building. It was actually in the basement, and was all black marble and chrome. Very art deco. So without spending a lot, you could dine in a really elegant environment.
