An automat is a

fast food restaurant A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically ...

where simple foods and drinks are served by

vending machines A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fir ...

. The world's first automat,

Quisisana Quisisana was a German company that introduced the world's first automat restaurant in June 1895 on the grounds of the Berlin Zoological Garden, Germany. The establishment was considered a success, selling 5,400 sandwiches, 9,000 glasses of wine ...

, opened in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany in 1895.

By country

Germany

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-25350-0001, Berlin, Alexanderplatz, Automatenrestaurant, Nacht

The first automat in the world was the

automat, which opened in 1895 in

, Germany. A similar restaurant existed in Breslau in 1904.

Japan

In Japan, in addition to regular

which sell prepared food, many restaurants also use food ticket machines ( ja, 食券機, shokkenki), where one purchases a meal ticket from a vending machine, then presents the ticket to a server, who then prepares and serves the meal.

Conveyor belt sushi , also called rotation sushi, is a type of sushi restaurant common in Japan. In Australasia, it is also known as a sushi train. Plates serving the sushi are placed on a rotating conveyor belt that winds through the restaurant and moves past eve ...

restaurants are also popular.

Netherlands

Automats ( nl, automatiek) provide a variety of typical Dutch fried fast food, such as

frikandel A frikandel (; plural frikandellen) is a traditional snack originating from the historical Low Countries ( Netherlands, Belgium and north of France), a sort of minced-meat sausage, of which the modern version was developed after World War ...

len and croquettes, but also

hamburgers A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or ...

and sandwiches from vending machines that are back-loaded from a kitchen.

FEBO FEBO () is a chain of Dutch walk-up fast food restaurants of the automat type. Founded in 1941 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, FEBO is most notable for this automatic format: a counter is available for purchasing French fries, beverages, and hamburge ...

is the best-known chain of Dutch automats. Some outlets are open 24 hours a day, and are popular with locals, and those leaving clubs and bars late at night. The Dutch concept has been successfully exported overseas.

United States

The first automat in the U.S. was opened June 12, 1902, at 818 Chestnut St. in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Horn & Hardart Horn & Hardart was a food services company in the United States noted for operating the first food service automats in Philadelphia, New York City, and Baltimore. Philadelphia's Joseph Horn (1861–1941) and German-born, New Orleans-raised Fran ...

; Horn & Hardart became the most prominent American automat chain. Inspired by Max Sielaff's AUTOMAT Restaurants in

, they became among the first 47 restaurants, and the first non-Europeans, to receive patented vending machines from Sielaff's Berlin factory.Automat-Restaurants – AUTOMAT GmbH, 23 Spenerstrasse, Berlin, N.W. :: Trade Catalogs and Pamphlets
-

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...

The automat was brought to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1912, and gradually became part of

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

in northern industrial cities. 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. The automats were popular with a wide variety of patrons, including

Walter Winchell Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and co ...

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russi ...

and other celebrities of the era. The New York automats were popular with unemployed songwriters and actors. Playwright

Neil Simon Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...

called automats "the

Maxim's Maxim's is a restaurant in Paris, France, located at No. 3 rue Royale in the 8th . It is known for its Art Nouveau interior decor. In the mid 20th century Maxim's was regarded as the most famous restaurant in the world. History Early history ...

of the disenfranchised" in a 1987 article. The format was threatened by the arrival of

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

, served over the counter and with more payment flexibility than traditional automats. By the 1970s, the automats' remaining appeal in their core urban markets was strictly

nostalgic Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", a Homeric word, ...

. Another contributing factor to their demise was the inflation of the 1970s, increasing

food prices Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices have an impact on producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing an ...

which made the use of coins increasingly inconvenient in a time before bill acceptors commonly appeared on vending equipment. At one time, there were 40 Horn & Hardart automats in New York City alone. The last one closed in 1991. Horn and Hardart converted most of its New York City locations to

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

. At the time, the quality of the food was described by some customers as on the decline.

2000s US revivals

In an attempt to bring back automats in

, a company called Bamn! opened a new East Village Dutch-style automat store in 2006, but it closed in 2009. In 2015, another attempt was made, by a San Francisco company called Eatsa, which opened six automated restaurants in California, New York and the District of Columbia, but closed them all by 2019. The company rebranded itself as Brightloom, and continues to sell automation technology to restaurants (which includes software for ordering kiosks, mobile apps, digital signage, etc., to facilitate order pickup). The

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

has inspired a new wave of automat revival attempts, to adapt to the disease and the desire for contactless dining. Joe Scutellaro and Bob Baydale opened an Automat Kitchen in Jersey City's Newport Centre shopping mall in early 2021, which uses technology similar to what Brightloom offers, and specializes in fresh food. Another is the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, which as of 2021 is still planning to open in the East Village, not far from the Bamn! location. File:Automat, 977 Eighth Avenue, Manhattan (NYPL b13668355-482752).jpg, An automat in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York City in 1936. File:Bamn Automat.png, A modern automat in Manhattan's East Village, circa 2007. File:Horn & Hardart Automat New York City 57th Street.JPG, Automat at 1165 Sixth Avenue, New York City, in the 1930s. File:Horn & Hardart automat.JPG, A Horn & Hardart postcard explaining how food was served in an automat (c. 1930s). File:Bamn Automat.jpg, A Bamn! automat, 2006

Rail transport

A form of the automat was used on some

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...

s. The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

in the United Kingdom announced plans in December 1945 to introduce automat

buffet car A buffet car is a passenger car of a train, where food and beverages can be bought at a counter and consumed.nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

, and an automat was finally introduced on the ''

Cambrian Coast Express The ''Cambrian Coast Express'' was a named passenger train of the Great Western Railway (GWR), and later British Rail, running from London Paddington via Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli over the Cambrian Line. GWR era Prior to ama ...

'', in 1962. In the United States, the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

introduced an automat between Pennsylvania Station, New York City and Union Station, Washington, DC, in 1954.

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

introduced automat

buffet car A buffet car is a passenger car of a train, where food and beverages can be bought at a counter and consumed.Coast Daylight The ''Coast Daylight'', originally known as the ''Daylight Limited'', was a passenger train on the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, via SP's Coast Line. It was advertised as the "most beautiful ...

'' and ''

Sunset Limited The ''Sunset Limited'' is an Amtrak passenger train that for most of its history has operated between New Orleans and Los Angeles, over the nation's second transcontinental route. However, up until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it operated betwe ...

'' in 1962.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

converted four buffet cars to automats in 1985 for use on the

Auto Train ''Auto Train'' is an scheduled daily train service for passengers and their automobiles operated by Amtrak between Lorton, Virginia (near Washington, D.C.), and Sanford, Florida (near Orlando). ''Auto Train'' is the only motorail service in ...

. The last one in use in the United States was on the short-lived ''

Lake Country Limited The ''Lake Country Limited'' was a short-lived Amtrak route which connected Chicago, Illinois with Janesville, Wisconsin. The route was part of Amtrak's Network Growth Strategy, which envisioned an expanded role for mail and express business. Th ...

'' in 2001. In Switzerland, Bodensee–Toggenburg Bahn introduced automat buffet cars, in 1987.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Automats
In Praise of the Automat
– slideshow by ''

Life magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...

''
Sielaff Automaten Berlin
– Max Sielaff, Automat inventor website
Used and new Automats in the United States

Doris Day at the Automat
in ''

That Touch of Mink ''That Touch of Mink'' is a 1962 American romantic comedy film directed by Delbert Mann and starring Cary Grant, Doris Day, Gig Young, and Audrey Meadows. Plot Cathy Timberlake, an unemployed New York City career woman, goes to the unemploymen ...

'' (1962)
Token from Automatencafe Quisisana, 57 Kärntner street, Vienna, Austria

Automat Restaurants :: Trade Catalogs and Pamphlets
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Automat Restaurants – over 100 years ago – My Stockholm BLOG
Fast-food restaurants Restaurants by type Vending * Retail formats de:Automatenrestaurant