# Does anyone remember Automats? Did you ever eat at one? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 17, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555 "2010-12-17T20:22:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/41 "2010-12-26T21:53:06Z")
I wonder if any of those old Art Deco automats still exist? They look beautiful, and remind me of the game _Grim Fandango_! ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/42 "2010-12-26T22:05:12Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Just saw a segment on _Modern Marvels_ that mentioned [BAMN!](http://www.bamnfood.com/index.html), an automat in NYC. > Looks like they’ve been around a couple of years. That’s the one that closed in around March 2009. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/43 "2010-12-26T22:21:38Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > That’s the one that closed in around March 2009. That’s weird, the website is still up and the segment I saw was dated 2010. It was _Modern Marvels Essentials,_ maybe it was a segment that aired earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/44 "2010-12-26T22:31:08Z")
Closed as reported in the [NY Post](http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regional/item_kHus3ato9r3u4SWzYBXk4H) [And as lamented by Yelpers](http://www.yelp.com/biz/bamn-new-york) ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/45 "2010-12-27T01:56:14Z")
Anyone know how they worked in terms of filling them up? Let’s say you had a piece of pie and it was the last one. Obviously it took some time to fill. Did they fill it right away? Or did it take some time to refill it? Or what? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/46 "2010-12-27T06:58:25Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Anyone know how they worked in terms of filling them up? Let’s say you had a piece of pie and it was the last one. Obviously it took some time to fill. Did they fill it right away? Or did it take some time to refill it? Or what? At peak times, usually around lunch, they were very good at restocking things right away. During off hours they didn’t keep everything restocked, in order to avoid a lot of food going bad. And if you went there during the night, the selection was very limited. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/47 "2010-12-27T17:49:01Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Anyone know how they worked in terms of filling them up? Let’s say you had a piece of pie and it was the last one. Obviously it took some time to fill. Did they fill it right away? Or did it take some time to refill it? Or what? There were multiple windows for popular items, so there usually wasn’t much of a time when they were out of something - at peak times, anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/48 "2010-12-27T22:28:43Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The last time I went they still had a lady in a booth taking dollars and handing out change for the machines - no bill changers yet. I ate at the 42nd street automat once, it was in 1987, and I seem to remember they were using tokens by then (so prices increases didn’t require recalibration of the slot mechanisms - just raise the token prices instead). And yes, the food wasn’t that special, it was OK. I was wondering why I never heard of BAMN!, as I was frequently in the area of St. Marks (college and all) and definitely would have tried it - until I read in that NY Post article that it only opened in 2006, years after I graduated (and so sort of stopped frequenting the area). We did go to the (original) Kiev (Diner) a lot - actually there were a lot of decent food choices in the area in the late 80s/early 90s - I guess there still are. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/49 "2011-01-01T23:51:56Z")
> [@velvetjones](#): > > I think there’s still an automat near where I live on Long Island. I’ve never eaten there but driven past it several times. Maybe you could check it out and report back to us. Question #1, since coins here are virtually shrapnel in light of contemporary price levels, how do they get around that problem? Do the mechanisms take paper money now? It’s my belief that it was inflation more than anything that resulted in their downfall, because bill acceptors on vending machines didn’t become common until years later. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/50 "2011-01-02T00:00:22Z")
IIRC Philadelphia and Greater NYC were the only places that ever did have them. It’s odd how you can get the idea that something is a typical feature of American life, or that it used to be. You study a foreign language, for example, and “automat” is one of the first words you come across in the first year dialogs, e.g. “Wollen wir ins Automat gehen?” (Shall we go to the Automat?). You see them in movies, like _That Touch Of Mink_. You think that, in that era, they must have been everywhere. Then you learn that you’ve never been within a thousand miles of one, barring airport layovers. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/51 "2011-01-04T20:23:16Z")
Another question: From depictions in a movie, I got the impression that there really weren’t vending machines, except in the sense that the mechanism would allow the customer to open the little door after depositing the right amount of money. Apart from that, however, it seemed to me that there was a kitchen-ful of cooks and other workers who prepared the food, placed it behind the little doors, washed the real crockery on which the food was served, and did just about everything else that needs to be done in any restaurant kitchen. Were there any automats that were just banks of vending machines? At the time I took my first German class in high school, I didn’t know about automats, and when I came to the dialog I mentioned upthread, I thought it meant they were going to go to someplace where there was just a bank of machines. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/52 "2011-01-04T20:27:54Z")
I was in a building in North Jersey in the 80s that had a large lunch room with bank after bank of vending machines with the big round rotating trays and sandwiches, soups, fruit and microwaveable items. Even had hamburgers ready for microwaving. This is the closest I have seen to what you’re asking about **Spectre**. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/53 "2011-01-05T00:51:25Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Another question: From depictions in a movie, I got the impression that there really weren’t vending machines, except in the sense that the mechanism would allow the customer to open the little door after depositing the right amount of money. Apart from that, however, it seemed to me that there was a kitchen-ful of cooks and other workers who prepared the food, placed it behind the little doors, washed the real crockery on which the food was served, and did just about everything else that needs to be done in any restaurant kitchen. Were there any automats that were just banks of vending machines? Certainly not in the 1960s-1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/54 "2011-01-05T01:17:43Z")
I vaguely remember being taken to one in NYC while visiting the city in the late Sixties or early Seventies. There’s a key scene set in an automat in the wonderful noir sf thriller _Dark City_, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/55 "2011-01-05T06:40:55Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > IIRC Philadelphia and Greater NYC were the only places that ever did have them. H&H did try expanding to other cities–in the '20s–and there have been non-H&H imitations elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/56 "2011-01-05T06:42:17Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I was in a building in North Jersey in the 80s that had a large lunch room with bank after bank of vending machines with the big round rotating trays and sandwiches, soups, fruit and microwaveable items. Even had hamburgers ready for microwaving. This is the closest I have seen to what you’re asking about **Spectre**. We had one of these in the big break room at work until we changed buildings. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/57 "2011-01-05T12:50:49Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I was in a building in North Jersey in the 80s that had a large lunch room with bank after bank of vending machines with the big round rotating trays and sandwiches, soups, fruit and microwaveable items. Even had hamburgers ready for microwaving. This is the closest I have seen to what you’re asking about **Spectre**. You just described the local community college’s cafeteria. Okay, so during lunch hour they have a concession stand open that serves one or two hot meals and regular concession stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555/58 "2011-01-08T06:50:00Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Certainly not in the 1960s-1970s. My description comes from a movie made in 1959, and I thought it must be reasonably true to life. On the other hand, a supporting character in the story is one of those automat workers, so I guess they had to stretch a point in order to make the plot work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-remember-automats-did-you-ever-eat-at-one/564555.md?page=2)