page_title: Automat
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Automat / By country / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: 0818-0820 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19107 on July 29, 2020 featuring original Horn &amp; Hardart Automat sign. Photograph by Morris Levin.
context_page_description: An automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drinks are served by vending machines. The world's first automat was named Quisisana, which opened in Berlin, Germany in 1895.
context_section_description: 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.
  The first automat in the U.S. was opened June 12, 1902, at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia by Horn & Hardart; Horn & Hardart became the most prominent American automat chain. 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 Sielaff's Berlin factory. The automat was brought to New York City in 1912, and gradually became part of popular culture in northern industrial cities.
  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.
  The format was threatened by the arrival of fast food, 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. Another contributing factor to their demise was the inflation of the 1970s, increasing food prices 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. At the time, the quality of the food was described by some customers as on the decline.
  In an attempt to bring back automats in New York City, a company called Bamn! opened a new East Village Dutch-style automat store in 2006, but it closed in 2009.
caption: 818 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, site of first U.S. Horn & Hardart Automat, with original Automat sign in July 2020
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