Long before fast food chains obtrude upon the city , New York ’s preferred topographic point to snap up a quick lunch and a cupful of Joe was the Automat .
If you were a work pixilated in New York any fourth dimension during the mid - 20th century , there ’s a good chance that your daily luncheon shift were spent at one of the fifty Automat eatery around the city . At the altitude of their popularity , they dish up around 350,000 customers a day . With their vast walls of chrome - and - glass nutrient - parcel out machines offering everything from Salisbury steak to cream spinach to apple pie , the Automats were far-famed for simple , solid fare at a downcast monetary value .
America ’s prototype restaurant chain was the inspiration of Joe Horn and Frank Hardart . At the turn of the twentieth century , the business organisation spouse envisioned a dining experience that would espouse the industrial revolution ’s idea of conveyor - whang efficiency and uniformity . It would feature ego - service vending machines instead of waitress , and have a glisten modern décor that was more manufacturing plant than dining way . breathe in by a German eatery called the Quisiana Automat , Horn & Hardart launched their first Automat in Philadelphia in 1902 . Ten years afterwards , they afford another in Times Square , and it was there that the Automat really film off .
New Yorkers love the speed and small prices . And boy , were they humbled . Until 1952 , almost all the food be a Ni . A hamburger or Viscount St. Albans and eggs were two nickels . Originally , the Automat ’s machines accepted only nickel . teller – or “ nickel throwers ” – changed paper money and heavy coin from a booth in the center of the eating place . Diners dropped the nickels in the slots , turned a knob , then lifted a hinged windowpane and removed the entrée , sandwich , or sweet of their choice . apart from the novelty , one of the pragmatic advantages of the Automat was that you could see the food before buying it .
Though the eatery come along to be automatize , behind the scenes there was a busy stave forever refilling the compartments . And the intellectual nourishment , of form , was devise by human hands , all of it from a central commissary in midtown . Other Automat raw material include weenie , beef cattle stew , macaroni and cheese , baked beans in a pot , mashed turnips , donuts and huckleberry Proto-Indo European .
Hot Coffee
For all the sound food , the Automat ’s real hugger-mugger weapon system was its burnt umber . Horn & Hardart generalise sassy drip - brew coffee in New York . Prior to the Automat , coffee was often abrasive and bitter , churn and clarified with eggshells . The Automat ’s smooth aromatic brew flux regally from ornate brass spigots in the frame of dolphin head . In their heyday , Automats sold over 90 million cups of their fresh - brewed coffee each twelvemonth . And they were pull to sustain it refreshing . When an Automat employee brewed coffee tree , they filled out a sentence card . After twenty second , they discarded whatever coffee tree was left and made a fresh pot . If there was any doubt about Horn & Hardart ’s committal to java , the Automat even adopted Irving Berlin ’s “ allow ’s Have Another Cup Of Coffee ” as their unofficial base song .
In fact , Berlin was a veritable at the Automat . So were Wall Street bankers , cops , sewer workers , office clerks , secretaries , actors , musician and somewhat much everyone else in the city . Uptown , downtown , rich , poor – everyone loved the Automat . That was another wonderful affair about it - it was a in truth popular dining experience .
By the 1960s , suburban sprawl , transfer sense of taste and newer degenerate - food for thought eatery chain were taking their toll on the Automat ’s business . By the seventies , Horn & Hardart were replacing Automats with Burger King franchises . The last of the Horn & Hardart establishments closed in April 1991 . In 2006 , a eating house squall Bamn seek to repair the Automat conception in New York ’s East Village , but its success was short - lived . A part of Horn & Hardart ’s flagship 1902 Automat in Philadelphia is preserved in the Smithsonian National Museum .
And eventually , a few word of honor of love from famous Automat diners :
This post in the beginning appear in 2011 .
