The Lost Machine Automats and Self-Service Cafeterias of NYC (2023)

The automat is something of a strange echo from my childhood.

When I was maybe 5 or so, my mom took my sister and I to Chicago from Kansas City. That train ride in and of itself is something of time capsule in my memory. My sister remembered the glowing handrails (radium?). I remember the lounge car where passengers sipped cocktails and watched the lights at night rush past outside. The women dressing, in my fuzzy recollection, like extras in The Thin Man.

Chicago was where I got to buy a pie, or some kind of dessert, from an automat. What a magical thing to give a kid some coins and just tell them to go grab what they like…

There are a number of things from my childhood that I came to find later were just gone. (Or obscure now to the point they are essentially gone.) Imagine my delight when the film Dark City featured an automat.

I was surprised in Tokyo to find something of a hybrid. Those places where you place your order, pay through something like a vending machine at the entrance of the place. The order goes back to the kitchen and, after you've sat down and waited a short time, your order is up.

Struck me as an efficient way to not have to have someone running a cash register, seating you, taking your order.

Also, there's a documentary called "The Automat" [1] that I tracked down just recently—have not yet watched. (Looks like it's streaming on Amazon, FWIW.)

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4554690/

The examples at the link are mostly from around midcentury. I'm familiar with a more recent example: In 2006-2009, there was one of those on St. Mark's Place -- 8th street between 2nd and 3rd. It was called "Bamn!" and IIRC was open 24/7, so it mostly catered to late-night drinkers and partiers. (It happened to be on one of NYC's few streets that always had lively nightlife, even during the week.) It was cheap, at something like $1 or $2 for a burger, and it was reasonably good.

There's a pic: https://www.flickr.com/photos/93779577@N00/4235886625

It was a fun place. Wish there were more like it.

I started dieting recently and I've come to understand the people who say that American portions are huge. An automat lets you sample a bunch of different stuff instead of the typical fast-food format of a main, french fries, and a drink each in a too-large portion. I'd like something like that.

If you're ever in the Netherlands, check out FEBO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEBO -- same kind of thing.

It’s interesting how the Automat is basically the opposite of the Subway/Chipotle/salad shop model that now dominates casual dining.

Instead of, here are all our ingredients, which do you want, it’s a precise set of premade meals with no substitutions.

This is so interesting. I remember as a child my family would go to S&S Cafeterias, and Piccadilly. It was like the lunch line at school. Regrettably the closest I've gotten to an automat was when I taught in a prison, the classroom had vending machines of sandwiches, desserts, etc.

I think we still have automats. Ikea cafe for example, the cafeteria in the basement of the Natural History and Science Museum in Washington, D.C., any number of places where you get food, checkout, sit, eat, leave without interacting with anyone.

If you haven't seen it, "The Devil and Miss Jones" (1941) stars Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn and features a food fight in an automat.

Here's another one with Jean Arthur at automat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIfzFGAAOyk

The H&H style is enchanting. Not sure why but I like it.