Automat

An automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drink are served by vending machines.

Originally, the machines in U.S. automats took only nickels. In the original format, a cashier sat in a change booth in the center of the restaurant, behind a wide marble counter with five to eight rounded depressions. The diner would insert the required number of coins in a machine and then lift a window, hinged at the top, and remove the meal, usually wrapped in waxed paper. The machines were replenished from the kitchen behind. All or most New York automats had a cafeteria-style steam table where patrons could slide a tray along rails and choose foods, which were ladled from tureens.

Inspired by Max Sielaff's () AUTOMAT Restaurants in Berlin, they became among the first 47 restaurants, and the first non-Europeans to receive patented vending machines from Max Sielaff's AUTOMAT GmbH Berlin factory, Ludwig Stollwerck (), creators of the first chocolate bar vending machine. The first automat in the US was opened June 12, 1902, at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia by Horn & Hardart. The automat was brought to New York City in 1912 and gradually became part of popular culture in northern industrial cities. Horn & Hardart was the most prominent automat chain.

The automats were popular with a wide variety of patrons, including Walter Winchell, Irving Berlin and other celebrities of the era. The New York automats were popular with unemployed songwriters and actors. Playwright Neil Simon called automats "the Maxim's of the disenfranchised" in a 1987 article.

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Wikipedia