Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

The Return of the Automat

MrBern

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,469
Location
DeleteStreet, REDACTCity, LockedState
carebear said:
Read for yourself. Any New Yorkers have reviews?

http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3589

ironically, the site of the last NYC automat jsut got razed this year. It had survived as a steakhouse on 57th st. But it was only a few stories tall & rather artydeco. A tower will go up, no doubt.

For a while there was a Sushi equivalent in NYC. A conveyor belt counter that circulates sushi on colored plates. You jsut reach over & grab what you like. The cashier counts you plates. Prices are all colorcoded as per the plate.
 

Wild Root

Gone Home
Messages
5,532
Location
Monrovia California.
This is cool! The Automat is something I wish we had here in CA... what a cool idea to bring it back!

If I were to open one, it would look like one out of the Great Depression! lol

=WR=
 

carebear

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,220
Location
Anchorage, AK
Feraud said:
I will.

Have you been to the Big Apple? Feel free to p.m. me in December. We will do dinner one evening.

One time this prior spring with the folks. Rode the train in from Queens and took the subway downtown. Ate at Carnegies, took the lower Manhattan bus tour, went to the Natural History Museum.

We were on a timeline of visiting family so we only had a couple days. Once they get settled in Manhattan (on Columbus in the 90's) and the baby isn't just new, I'd like to go spend a good week there. See the shops and the out of the way cool stuff.
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,190
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
I wanted to bump this thread with a few pictures. I scanned these from a book my wife has on her bookshelf called The Automat by Diehl and Hardart

scan0082.jpg


scan0081.jpg


scan0083.jpg
 

Hondo

One Too Many
Messages
1,655
Location
Northern California
We have one at work, of course its empty, vender won’t add stuff, enough customers, they tend to be expensive these days, tricky with the sliding doors, but in the past they were cool I agree.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,221
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Much of the food for Automat locations was prepared in central commissaries, and sent out in refrigerated trucks to the individual restaurants -- and then reheated before being put in the slots. This meant the amount of kitchen space needed could be kept to a minimum. It really was an ingenious system for getting hot food to customers as efficiently as possible -- "Fast Food" '30s style.
 

collarmelton

New in Town
Messages
6
Location
New York City
The last automat in NYC

The last Horn & Hardart holdout was the one at the corner of 42nd and 3rd, and closed in 1991. I hadn't gone to the automat much past the 1970's but I do recall that it was something of a pain to have to feed lots of nickels into the slots to get lunch. To be frank, inflation rendered paying for a full meal in coins impractical after the 1960's. But I still remember fondly that coconut cream pie. Someone once told me that Horn & Hardart kept all their recipes locked up in a safe, like Coca Cola does with the "secret formula," but I don't know if that was true.
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,190
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
MrBern and I almost walked right past this place until his sharp eye noticed the sign.
We walked in early this a.m. for a second breakfast of a bun stuffed with meat. There were two St. Patrick's Day leftovers trying hard to explain something about Amsterdam and buying food. Whatever..
DSC00088.jpg

DSC00083.jpg

DSC00076.jpg

DSC00078.jpg

DSC00087.jpg

DSC00085.jpg

DSC00075.jpg
 

carebear

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,220
Location
Anchorage, AK
With the prevalence of debit cards and such I can see automats making a comeback. Swipe and go.

Fast food where you don't have to talk to a rude teenager?

The new American dream. ;)
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,190
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
A swipe and go system would be a convenient idea.
In the case of this automat, there is a change machine that provides dollar coins.
MrBern used a couple of Susan Bs to buy his snack.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
107,666
Messages
3,044,033
Members
53,028
Latest member
usleathermart
Top