Horn and Hardart's Automat, founded in Philadelphia in 1902 and opened in New York ten years later, was once the world's largest restaurant chain with, at its peak, 180 shops serving 800,000 customers a day.  Unlike any other restaurant before or since, the Automat was nothing less than a giant vending machine, dispensing fresh, tasty, and inexpensive food from compartments behind small windows (as in the photo above).  The establishment was essentially a self-service restaurant or cafeteria.  Each compartment was opened by dropping one or more nickels in its slot.  The Automat was not really "automatic," however.  Whenever a customer removed an item from its compartment, it was quickly replaced by a human being who worked behind the scenes.

The Automat holds a special place in the history of American restaurants.  Many of its locations were beautifully decorated in art deco style.  It appears in paintings by Norman Rockwell and Edward Hopper and in at least two songs: "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee" (by Irving Berlin) and "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (which was sung by Marilyn Monroe).

What accounted for the Automat's popularity?  It was modern and high-tech in its day.  The food was fresh, inexpensive and fast, and the fact that it was kept in glass-fronted compartments gave customers confidence in the restaurant's cleanliness and sanitation.  It was also a novelty and dropping nickels in the slots was endlessly entertaining for children and even for adults who did not eat there frequently.

When I was eight years old, my parents took my sister and me to New York for our summer vacation. As a young technologist, a visit to the Automat was high on my list of things to do and places to see--somewhere between the Gilbert Hall of Science and the Statue of Liberty.  I delighted in the macaroni and cheese, but I'll never forget how disappointed I was when I saw a human hand reach in and replace the lemon meringue pie I had just taken.  The last Automat closed in 1991, the same year as the Gilbert Hall of Science.  A portion of the original 1902 Philadelphia Automat is in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The Museum of the City of New York presented an exhibit on the Automat from November 2002 until April 2003.  The Museum's web site conveys some of its flavor and has fine photos as well as many reminiscences contributed by visitors to the site.

The Horn and Hardart Coffee Company now franchises coffee shops in the Philadelphia area and New Jersey.  Its web site has a little bit of H&H history and the locations of its stores.

The Committee to Preserve the Upper West Side (of New York City) would like to save the Automat at 2170 Broadway, which is currently a drug store and (on the second story) an accounting and law office.

You can buy a piece of the original Automat at OldWoodBars.com.  Prices are not listed on the site.  The firm also operates a site about the Automat called TheAutomat.com.

Lorraine B. Diehl and Marianne Hardart (the great-granddaughter of Frank Hardart, co-founder of the Automat) have co-authored a book (2002) entitled, The Automat:  The History, Recipes, and Allure of Horn & Hardart's Masterpiece.  Their site includes some nice photos, information about the Automat, the book and its authors, quotes about the Automat from famous people (including Woody Allen and Leonard Nimoy), and an Automat message board.

Recipes from the Automat abound on the Internet.  Here is one for macaroni and cheese from Arthur Schwartz, "the Food Maven," another for baked beans from a baking site, and creamed spinach and rice pudding from The Philadelphia Daily News (but posted on the Miami Herald's site?).

The New York Public Library has thousands of photos of Horn & Hardart's Automats.  Here are a few samples.

Carolyn Hughes Crowley, "Meet Me at the Automat," Smithsonian Magazine (August 2001).  Probably the best background piece on the Automat available on the web.

Three great antique postcards of the Automat from the collection of Debra Jane Seltzer (whose other pages are also worth a look).

Two RealAudio sound files relating to the Automat:  (1) a one-hour interview with Marianne Hardart on Wisconsin Public Radio, and (2) a 1969 radio commercial for Horn & Hardart's pumpkin pie (60 sec.).