The Automat
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- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- A coin-operated glass-and-chrome wonder, Horn & Hardart's Automats revolutionized the way Americans ate when they opened up in Philadelphia and New York in the early twentieth century. In a country where the industrial revolution had just taken hold, eating at a restaurant with self-serving vending machines rather than waitresses and Art Deco architecture instead of stuffy dining rooms was an unforgettable experience. The Automat served freshly made food for the price of a few coins, and no one made a better cup of coffee. By the peak of its popularity-from the Great Depression to the post-war years-the Automat was more than an inexpensive place to buy a good meal; it was a culinary treasure, a technical marvel, and an emblem of the times.
Wish they could bring the automat back again it would be a treat.
On West 23rd St. this H&H had glasses with lemon wedges available for iced tea.
As kids, we took these glasses and made free lemonade with sugar, water, and ice.
About 1961, 60 years ago!
My dad would take me there. He had a newsstand at 12th and Market. We would go to the one on Market. He would get pie. I would get a platter. Miss you daddy and H&H.
I definitely remember the automats in Manhattan! By the 60s, you needed a lot of quarters. I always had a turkey sandwich, fruit cup and soft drink. The total amount came to $1.50. Wonderful memories!
Loved it,,,,,Many items to choose, Mc n Cheese were Great,Bring it BACK, PLEASE
I used to lunch at the last Automat on 42nd and 3rd., in NYC when I had my first job out of high school. I'm so happy I experienced an Automat. It's a shame they're gone.
Same here ...I was a messenger at the time.... I miss it too.
When I first started my job in 1986 I would go to the automat on 42st for my meal time..I enjoyed it very much..I'm retired now. This video brought back fond memories..😀
Supposedly during the Great Depression of the 1930's homeless men sought the Automats for warmth in the winter. A nickel got an endless coffee, so you could just sit inside for hours. Free catsup mixed with free hot water for tea was "tomato soup".
My Grandfather worked for horn&hardart
I remember this in the 60’s. What a memory!
As a kid, there was something very 'Jetsons' about eating there. Instant gratification and (almost) anything you could imagine to eat. The selections were overwhelming.
Same. The one at 42 was the one I remember.
The Automat was my first job in the US (legal resident in 1959). I will never forget the wonderful people I had the privilege to work with. Almost sixty years later, I am enjoying my golden years in Florida (after serving in Viet Nam. College degree, and working for so many years. My family: wife, daughter, granddaughter, great granddaughter are proud Kentuckians. We do become Americans
Awesome! God bless you and your family!
...God bless you, my friend!!!
I remember going to Horn & Hardart in Manhattan in the 60s...by then it was 25 cents...
Ate ate automat in NYC...ever time I see the Doris Day movie I smile remembering I was there
What a wonderful communication from you, Manuel. I hope the kind and fine folks of our country embraced you as they would their other neighbors. It sure gives me a warm feeling in my heart to read your post Most Americans (still) know we're all God's children and He wants us to love one another for what in His eyes we are--brothers and sisters. Yours in Christ, J
One of my earliest memories in NYC. For many years my mother took me and my brother there to eat a warm meal after the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. The food was good. If someone reopened it, I would be a customer.
I miss Horn & Hardart's. Although the food came out of a massive wall to wall vending machine, it was actually good.
That's because it was freshly made from good ingredients. Don't think there were any fillers or unusual chemicals that are used today.
People where behind replacing the boxes, always fresh!
They should bring this back seems safer especially during these times of covid pandemic
Their baked beans were divine! Different from any other. Mom and I would go shopping downtown Philly and stop at the automate for lunch. Hot apple pie with vanilla sauce, rice pudding with plump raisins and tapioca pudding were my favorites. Their lemon meringue pie was a work of art. The meringue was piped on top of the lemon curd in a beautiful design.
Mom would let me get her coffee so I could watch the hot fluid stream out of the metal fish mouth spouts that reminded me of Italian fountains with carved nymphs and fish spouting water.
Sad to have lost this restaurant chain. They were awesome!
I loved that place. My favorite was the rice pudding....it was so delicious.
Always a stop in NYC even just to have coffee and ham sandwich
So many of my childhood memories revolve around food growing up in New York. Horn & Hardart, Nedicks, Wetsons, White Castle.
So true. Thanks
@bill fortch..
Nedicks!!!!!
really wish that this existed now!
I went with my dad to one in california and somewhere on route 66 dont think the name was the same but dad loved it, me too. the woman doing the change was nice too. she explained to us how it worked. we had never saw such a thing before. very cool
I was lucky enough to have eaten there when I was a kid on vacation...didn't know then that the memories would be something special
Those are some of the best memories
My dad took me to the one in NYC. Best donuts ever!
I worked in NYC for 10 years 1980-90. the photo at 2:17 was my commuter bus stop, right in front of the Automat. I would often grab some great snack before the 2.5 hour commute from NYC to Sound Beach, Long Island. all the food behind the little doors were delicious and totally fresh. Such a great concept for an eatery, it should be brought back from obscurity!
I am from California & in 1969 on a full day layover on the way to Spain to study we went into an automat to eat. I don’t remember what I had except the pie, it was delicious & I got it from behind a little window! Thanks for the memory.🇺🇸🌵❤️
I loved Horn & Hardat as a kid! We had one in Sunnyside, Queens, where I spent my early years. Later, while working as a Field Rep. for the State Insurance Fund, I went to the one on East 42nd Street for lunch, before it closed down.
This should be brought back. Very interesting.
I ate at the one on 42nd st. in the 50's when I was a kid. It was on a visit to my uncle's. I never saw anything like it.
Many fond memories of the Horn and Hardart Restaurant. In the Summer of 1967 my friend and I found $10 and we went on the Subway to Manhattan, saw a movie ("Barefoot In the Park") at Radio City Music Hall, and ate lunch at the Automat all on the $10!
This place was just a high point as a kid on day trips to Philadelphia. Visiting from Texas to see both sets of Grandparents and Aunt in Wilmington, we’d occasionally take the train for Wannamakers, Mullins, etc. and maybe a movie for a day trip. And head for the automat for lunch, just for the experience. Really cool!
My brother was in boarding school in Philadelphia in the late 1940's-early 1950's
and Mama and I often visited, which included a visit to Horn & Hardart's and Wanamakers.
I enjoyed the Automat, being able to select what I wanted.
I've always wanted to eat at an automat.
I wish I could have experienced the Automat. Sounds amazing!!! I grew up in the 1960's and 1970's, when diner-style restaurants were very popular (and a real treat for my family), but we had nothing like the Automat. The good old days!!!
I always wanted to try it but I never got to even though I was in N.Y.C. in the 70s with my dad. It just looked like fun.
I used to love the Automat food. Their Mac and cheese and pie was to die for!
What great memories. I didn't know there was one still open in New York till 1991 otherwise I would have gone to it. Oh those memories 😢
This brought so many memories back to me. My parents took me to NYC often as a child and 8 loved going to the automats. Then Syracuse New York got 0ne. I also miss the Waldorf Cafeterias.
Growing up in California and being younger,I became aware of automats from watching my favorite channel TCM. Several old movies show automats during the movie. Between movies they have short history videos of the automats. I now live in nyc and I wish I could have experienced one. I love all of the posts and memories.
My dad survived on H&H Automat food from the location nearest Drexel Univ. in West Philadelphia from about 1948-55, when he attended Drexel at night on the GI Bill.
I grew up in Philadelphia - remember the H&H restaurants vividly - especially the Automats.
No one talks about the cafeteria steam tables that were a part of every H and H I ever went to....the best mashed potatoes ever. I went to the Automat as late as the early seventies....one down on Nassau Street in NYC....in a basement. But better memory is the one across from Bryant Park.
Both my grandparents worked in the New York location and Philadelphia. I have memories of putting money in the automat door and hollering into my grandfather to come to the little window so we could eat together. I can't say my grandfather's memories were not so fond. When they closed and the pension money was gone.
I LOVED the automat as a kid in the sixties! I think it was in NYC. I lived in Cedar Grove, New Jersey and I think my Mom took us to the automat a few times. I was amazed by it. I loved it. Yes, I agree with the other comment about White Castle which us kids loved also; in Verona, NJ. The big automat in NYC was a treat and worth the trip!!
I remember my mother taking us kids there in the late '40's. It was awesome, as they kids say today.
When I was just a Kid in the 50's to early 60's there were numerous Automats throughout the Kentucky home highway system, most notably Howard Johnson's, I always wondered what happened to 'em...
Loving memories of me and my grandmother ❤
The only thing I remember about Horn & Hardart"s,was when Stallone wanted to take Adrian there for Thanksgiving.I had just gotten my driver"s license and I took my brother to see "Rocky"" in my $300 1963 Impala,great memories.Used to drive around at night with my buddies drinking quarts of "Reading beer" at 50 cents a quart.Rocky was filmed in "Philly",so everything makes perfect sense.
I remember them well and i loved them !!
Fresh food, you could see the hands filling up empty box and it was always very clean !!
There’s a wonderful documentary to rent on Prime about Horn and Hardart’s Automat. I just viewed it and loved it. The documentary explains all the factors that brought an end to automats.
The Automat had the best cherry pie in the history of the world.
And blueberry!
@@YT4Me57 idiots
Remember it well. I remember pushing the nickels in, opening the little door and removing the food. And almost as quickly as you removed the food someone in the back was replacing that item for the next customer. There was never an empty door.
I remember going to the one on East 42nd Street near Third Avenue. It was an interesting concept, to say the least.
In the 1950s...mom would take me to H&H. I loved (and still remember) their baked macaroni and cheese, in that dark green oval dish, dispensed for my nickels ...oh joy...
went to the roxy movie house after went to the automat those were the days wish it never ended
About five years before they closed, my sister brought her two sons to Manhattan to have lunch at "H&H".
She felt it was important that they experience a piece of NYC history.
I went there with my school chum, Mike Stein, one day in December 1959/1960. We played hookey to see NYC Christmas decorations. We bought our lunch at Hoen &Hardart.
One thing that I recall was the woman who gave out the nickels. She NEVER counted them. She lifted a handful from.her cash drawer, hefted them, dropped one or two back into the drawer, or perhaps added one or two. We both counted our money TWICE. She gave us EXACTLY one dollar each (lots of money then...Ike was President).
She NEVER made a mistake.
the food was excellent. And just cost pennies.
If you want to see it in action, watch a Doris Day/Cary Grant movie, " Make Mine Mink". There are a few scenes that take place there.
And now we miss it! Best ham sandwiches on Broadway!!!!!!!!!!
H&H had the best chocolate layer cake - 7 layer party cake
While I never got a chance to eat at one, I've seen them in old movies like "That Touch Of Mink"
My best friend's Mama worked at an Automat making salads!! I never got the chance to eat at one , but have always found them fascinating.
It was a great adventure to go to The Automat, LOL! I loved watching the mechanism work; when I was little, I thought it was some kind of magic to tell you the truth. Great memories!
Aaaaaaaaa
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🤔---we should bring them back today...
🤔---something to think about....
I remember going once in NY as a child. I saw people through the little doors working on the other side loading the food into the compartments that were emptied.
Nice vid of a piece of Americana that's sadly long gone.
We had one that was built into the cafeteria of a manufacturing plant I used to work in Fort Edward, NY. The plant was pretty old and it was closing up in 2002 or so and I was there when the place had been sold, but the Automat still worked. It was built along the whole wall and looked pretty much like what you see here. It was amazing and was a part of America and ingenuity that no longer exists. Now we have fast food and even those are dying under the age of automation and computers. We've lost something, that personal and human touch.
My dear Grandfather took me in the 50's...he made sure I experienced NYC, learned history and had good fun.
Wish we had an Automat now.
The Automat seemed to be a cross between a vending machine and an all you can eat buffet. Or perhaps led to the modern buffet dining restaurants in its own way.
I remember the Automats from trips to NYC in the mid to late 60s, when I was a kid. While my memories are of the experience, the Horn and Hardart name regained significance (for me) thanks to the work of Peter Schickele and his PDQ Bach creation, The Concerto for Horn and Hardart, performed around the same time I had my Automat experiences as a kid. It is sad than neither the Automats remain, nor any film record of the PDQ Bach instrument, created for a time that is now past. Schickele once said he had the remnants of the Horn and Hardart instrument still in his garage, I think, but I wonder what ultimately became of it. It was a great, if twistedly humorous, tribute to the Automat.
My mom loved the automat. Whenever I went with her downtown, wed have lunch there.
HH was our cafeteria for HS kids attending Central Commercial HS, 42nd and third. Wonderful memories for me Louis A. NYV
Love them! I would pig out on the deserts. 42nd
and I believe lex and 8th by Columbus Circle.
Are 2 I fondly remember.
I lived in Philadelphia when the last Horn and Hardart there closed in the early 90s.
The struggling NYC actor James Dean ate at H&H. The automat found its way into the noir crime writings of Cornell Woolrich
I remember going there with my dad and sometimes with my mom too. Best the machines it also had a cafeteria style too
I would get a tray and get the baked beans (they were the best) hash brown potatoes and baked ham that was carved. I would get a cup of vanity ice cream for desert. The first time I got the ice cream was saw it had black specks in it. My dad told me that it was the vanilla bean. That meant that it was made with real vanilla.
Great memories of the Automat.
Loved their baked beans and Salisbury steak. Just to name a couple.
One indelible memory of Horn & Hardart Automats for me is the cashiers who dispensed change onto a marble counter. If you handed over a dollar bill, they would splay out ten nickels and two quarters without hesitation, and always accurately.
I remember getting 20 nickles each time. Maybe cause I was a kid and too young for coffee.
I'm happy for you that it was an indelible memory and not an inedible memory.
There use to be one at Germantown and Lehigh Avenues in Philadelphia across from the Drug Store.
I was a 5 year old when mom and dad took me into Manhattan on the LI RR.
I thought the automat was magic a machine. I was disappoint to see a female loading a piece o pie in the cubicle. I was thrilled put in a nickel and get a piece of pie. Parents got me a hot chocolate another time. It was Xmas and we had seen the rocks edger trees tree.
Rockefeller center Xmas tree.
My mom and stepdad showed me something about this on Netflix . Looks like a great place
Now a documentary called ... drum roll ... The Automat!
I was their when I was 10 we went every Saturday loved it In Phillip
My Grandma work worked there !! I still have one of the pans with the HH logo on it !! My Grandma loved working there.
I remember going with my dad late 70s or early 80s. It was cooi!
My suggestion for modern automats: replace coin slots with credit/debit card (and maybe prepaid card) readers, and also with QR payment.
IDIOT
I remember that , my aunt took me there when I was a kid to visit her in the city….what a thrill for a kid
I remember the last one on 42nd street in Manhattan......Great food and memories!
I had no idea they started in Philadelphia.
I was there once as a child bit was so cool
They have recently reopened one or two Automats in Philly and/or NYC. That’s pretty cool!
Easy days of the past are long gone.
They should bring them back
By the 1970s, when I went as a kid with my mother - the cubbyhole window purchases
had fallen into disuse from what I recall. It was mostly a cafeteria line - but it was a great cafeteria line.
I like how these are basically the same people that were recently interviewed for the new documentary
Really cool concept!!
Luckily I got to the last Horn and Hardart in NYC before they closed. Clientele was pretty sad, but very glad I got to eat there.
I wish i could have experienced the automat.
cool history cool book i bet great topic such a mystique of new york
*Hey...wait a minute!*
*There was an 'Automat' close to 'J.L. Hudsons' in downtown Detroit and I know it for a fact because 'Gramma' would take me there shopping in the late'50's early '60's and it was COOL to see all that fresh food behind the little display windows...it seemed 'magic' to me then*
( *My favorite was a 'Hot Turkey Open-Faced' with mashed potatoes but you ordered that at a little counter and waited for it to come-out or they would call-it out on a 'PA' by number like '#22, your order is ready'* )
___________
*You 'dressed-up' to shop at 'Hudson' then...I usually had some little jacket and a clip-on bow-tie even at 7yrs. old*
___________
*They had magnificent 'Christmas Displays' that people would drive a 100-miles just to see it all...blocks long!*
( *Even 'Live Reindeer'...take that, New York!* )
I got to see the one on 42 street when I was 19 in 1973.