Behind the scenes, invisible kitchen workers quickly refilled empty compartments like magic. Nimble-fingered cashiers wearing rubber tips dispensed nickels through the recessed dishes of their glass-enclosed booths. Horn & Hardart’s sleek, coin-operated cafeteria had more slots than a Las Vegas casino, but these machines delivered guaranteed payoffs: sandwiches, slices of pie and comfort food from macaroni and cheese to chicken potpie to tapioca pudding. After window shopping, customers could drop a nickel into a coin slot, turn a knob, lift up the door and help themselves to their food. A gigantic, coin-operated vending machine with row upon row of windowed compartments, resembling glass-fronted post office boxes, housed dozens of menu items.
“Try It! You’ll Like It!!” the ad promised.Ĭurious-and hungry-readers who followed the culinary entreaties and stepped inside the Horn & Hardart Company’s “Automat Lunch Room” in Times Square for its grand opening a century ago found a high-tech, self-service wonder.
“New Method of Lunching,” cried out the advertisement to readers of the July 2, 1912, edition of The New York Times.
