The Automat
Gone since April 1991 — Neil Simon called the chain "the Maxim's of the disenfranchised." A 2006 East Village tribute lasted under three years, and the revived Horn & Hardart coffee company has been promising a new automat since 2023 without opening a door.
Last verified Nov 6, 2026
Drop nickels in the slot, lift the little glass door, take your pie. America's first automat opened in Philadelphia in 1902, fed office crowds by the hundreds of thousands, and went dark for good in Manhattan in 1991.
Filed under: Fast Food · the ’70s & earlier
📅 Timeline
- 1902Horn & Hardart opened America's first automat at 818 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, on June 9 — after the original German machinery sank at sea and a replacement arrived just in time.
- 1912The first New York Horn & Hardart automat opened in Times Square in July.
- 1940By 1940 the company was feeding several hundred thousand people a day across Philadelphia and New York.
- 1990Greater Philadelphia's last automat closed in Bala Cynwyd in May.
- 1991The last automat anywhere — 42nd Street and Third Avenue, Manhattan — shut on April 9; Time ran a requiem the same month.
- 2006A tribute automat named Bamn! opened on St. Marks Place in August; it was gone by spring 2009.
❓ People also ask
Are there any automats left in America?
No. The last Horn & Hardart automat closed in Manhattan in April 1991. The revived brand survives as a coffee company whose CEO has been promising a new automat since 2023 and was still scouting locations as of mid-2025.
How did an automat work?
You dropped nickels in a slot beside a little glass-and-chrome door, turned the knob and took your dish. Behind the wall, kitchen staff refilled the compartments from the back — a restaurant with the waiters hidden, not removed.
Did Horn & Hardart invent the automat?
No — the format was German, and Horn & Hardart imported its first machinery from Berlin. What Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart invented was the American automat as an institution, including coffee brewed fresh every 20 minutes at a nickel a cup.
🧾 Sources
- Time, Restaurants: Requiem for Horn & Hardart (1991)
- Wire report (via Deseret News), Last coin-operated cafeteria closes in Manhattan (1991)
- The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Automats (2016)
- History.com, The Automat: Birth of a Fast Food Nation (2012)
- NY1, Horn and Hardart CEO discusses company's efforts to revive the automat (2023)