Once upon a time, five cents went a long way. A person could
make a phone call, ride the subway, or buy a newspaper (though you couldn't get a "good cigar," apparently…)
This was especially true in Manhattan, when New Yorkers with a
fistful of nickels could eat, if not the best food in town, certainly
the fastest, by going to the Automat.
Automats in America were an invention of the Horn & Hardart Company. While there were never more than a handful in
New York and Philadelphia, they made a quick and indelible mark on American
society, beginning on July 7, 1912.
The idea behind the restaurant was simple and democratic. Anyone with a
nickel -- from socialite to panhandler --
could enter the restaurant, sit at one of the immaculate tables, and enjoy hot meals,
sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, pies, and what was reputed to be the best coffee in
town, served hot from a chrome dolphin’s head. Horn & Hardart pioneered drip-brewed coffee and the java served was never more than twenty minutes
old. In the 1950s, they served more than 90 million cups annually. (By comparison, in 2006, Starbucks sold nearly 1.5 billion cups of joe -- but since they had more than 12,000 locations; that's only 125,000 per store.)
While the bill of fare at the Automat was never more than what you’d find at a
really good cafeteria,
it was the uniqueness of the method of payment that brought folks back.
Patrons could enter with bills or coins, go to the central change booths
(staffed by "nickel throwers"), and get as many nickels as they needed. Once they
had their change, diners would proceed to a wall of small glass doors (behind which waited cold and hot foods), and drop as
many nickels into the slot as were needed to pay. They’d then slide the door
open, remove the food (which was instantly replenished from the huge
kitchens on the other side of the wall), and sit down (or stand at the post
office-like counters for a "perpendicular meal"). Of course, for some, not even nickels were
necessary; many Depression-era diners were able to enjoy hot meals by making
"Automat Tomato Soup," which combined the restaurant’s free hot water and
ketchup.
As with most good things, the Automat
couldn't last. The combination of rising prices and the proliferation of
fast-food restaurants (not to mention real estate values) made the Automats
museum pieces, fit only for nostalgists. The spaces were converted to Burger Kings, and in 1991, the last Automat closed. (And even that space has since been turned into a
Gap.)
In 2006, a trio of entrepreneurs opened an updated version of the concept in New York's Greenwich Village, but it, too, shuttered earlier this year, a victim of costs (and mediocre reviews).
That may seem like the end of the road, but a 35-foot section of the
Philadelphia automat lives on at (where else?) the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington. Unfortunately, there's no pie behind those windows
any more.
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