Design
Remember the Automat
Once a staple of the Manhattan lunch scene, the automat sees new life as a replica for an exhibit about lunch.
The automat, the purposely impersonal restaurant concept that, at least in America, has long since been confined to its status as an early 20th century relic, is being recreated at the New York Public Library for Lunch Hour NYC, an exhibit on the city's lunch history.
A "fast food" concept where meals are delivered entirely by vending machine, the automat was born in 1880s Europe. The idea eventually traveled to America, first reaching Philadelphia in 1902. New York would get its first automat 10 years later, with Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart opening dozens of Horn & Hardart kiosks across the city, serving as many as 750,000 people a day.