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In 1965 my parents and I visited NYC. We were so excited about getting to see the automats, which as I recall were brand new or fairly new at the time? It was exciting!
In 1965 my parents and I visited NYC. We were so excited about getting to see the automats, which as I recall were brand new or fairly new at the time? It was exciting!
By 1965 the Horn and Hardart automats had already been in NYC for 50+years. The first one opened in Times Square in 1912. By the 1940s and 1950s NY boasted 50 automats.
Wow, now you have me curious. What I vaguely remember (it was the summer of 1965) is that there were blocks and blocks of huge high walls of automat compartments that had sandwiches and other stuff. I don't remember much about it, other than it was quite crowded with people. I wonder why my parents called it new. Maybe because there was nothing like it on the West Coast.
Oh, I should mention that these were outdoors right on the sidewalk on a busy street.
I loved the Automat. It was one of the high points of visiting NYC after we moved away. I remember getting two dollars worth of nickles. It was so clean and had marble bases and chrome doors on the compartments. I remember the cinnamon swirl pastries were to die for. I also remember Chock Full O Nuts coffee shops with those cream cheese and nut bread sandwiches, mmmm.
You can find some cool footage of them on YouTube (the other thread includes links). My question is: why did everyone remove all the plates from the tray before eating? Seems it would have made clean-up easier to leave them on there, but I suppose the point was to make it seem more like a home-made meal being eaten at home or a restaurant on a table with real china and cutlery, which is nice.
I remember as a very young child, my mother took me an appointment and we went to a counter for lunch and there was something with sandwiches and pieces of Pie that she put coins in and out came a tuna sandwich and later a piece of apple pie.
Never heard of them and I'm 79, cafeaterias are gone too but thankfully there are still a few all you can eat buffets.
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