A Blast from
the Past
Stroll down memory lane with
AUTOMAT KITCHEN By Marilyn Baer Photos courtesy of the Automat Kitchen American dining institution officially returned this year with the opening of Automat Kitchen, the reinvention of the famed automat. For millennials like myself, unfamiliar with the tradition, the automat was a type of fast-food restaurant where simple premade foods and drinks were served via vending machines. Originating in Berlin in 1895, they became popular in the United States after the first one opened in Philadelphia in 1902. The automat was an iconic image of the 1940s and ‘50s, with men in suits and fedoras and women in hats and gloves—many of them famous—slipping nickels into the machines and receiving a chicken dinner or slice of pie. By the1990s, the automat became virtually extinct with most of the ones operated by Horn & Hardart in New York City turned into Burger Kings.
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Automat Redux Now, new life has been breathed into the once popular concept, but this is anything but your grandmother’s automat. Automat Kitchen, in the Newport Center Tower at 525 Washington Boulevard, has a chef-curated menu of modern comfort food classics and a technology-driven contactless experience that fits the needs of contemporary diners. It modernizes the original concept with a fully contactless, touchless process using custom hardware and patented software to make ordering and pickup seamless. Instead of dropping a nickel into a slot for a premade turkey sandwich on a lunch tray, Automat Kitchen offers technology driven convenience without sacrificing quality. Unlike the old automat, all dishes are made to order to ensure freshness. Customers can order in advance on their phones, online, or at the location by scanning a QR code to connect to the menu and ordering system.
