First of all, there is one major difference between vending machines and automats. With a vending machine, the operator delivers the products, loads up the machine, and then walks away. At an automat, precooked meals were delivered. But it was hidden human workers--almost always women--who stood behind these "vending machines" all day, making sure that as soon as a customer opened the door to pull out their selection, there was another tray waiting right in front. "Waiterless restaurants," as the machines were originally called, were an illusion that minimized any value we might see in domestic labor.
And, let it be said, for a few shining decades, they were a popular and thrilling illusion.
At the turn of the twentieth circle, there was a swelling trend for urban workers to purchase their lunches midday. At first, the ubiquitous street vendors and food carts were able to fill the role. But in the 1880s-1890s, some entrepreneurs experimented with the idea of sit-down midday meals. Samuel Jones started building carts into wagons that had space for patrons to eat their street food while sitting--a Low Rent version of the era's restaurants that also provided the roots for the classic 1950s diner.
A company called Horn and Hardart originally operated a parallel type of quick sit-down dining, the luncheonette, which (historically speaking) are often associated with the stools-at-a-counter design and service method. But according to Joseph Carlin, you can blame bratwurst for inspiring the innovation: company bigwigs first learned about "waiterless restaurants" in Switzerland, and purchased their first samples in Germany.
The first Horn and Hardart Automat (a proper name, here) opened in Philadelphia in 1902; it was successful enough that a decade later, New York City got its first. And it was the NYC innovations that came to be synonymous with Automats/automats, and the reason that pop culture perception of Automats is so integrated with NYC. And those innovations were:
Two-story-tall stained glass windows. Beat that, White Castle.
Okay, yes, there was also the small matter that in 1912, Horn and Hardart engineers introduced an improved version of the automat machine itself. The customer would see their food behind a small rectangular glass window, insert a nickel (which presumably unlocked the door), and then turn the knob to open the door.
But scholars stress that the decor was a major draw for customers. An Automat was the place where everyday people could get good, cheap food in an atmosphere that aped the day's upscale restaurants. Carlin describes the glass-topped tables, intricate ceiling carvings, and--yes--the two-story stained glass window of the 1912 NYC Automat.
The emphasis on a thrilling interior helped make Automats a place to sit and hang out, not just eat a meal on the go. I've talked before on AskHistorians about how and why cafes were such popular hangouts for Parisian philosophers in the early 20th century (tl;dr they lived in cruddy apartments with no kitchen). Automats served a similar function in NYC in particular, being a draw for the (often-unemployed) theatre and movie industry crowd.
It helps, of course, that the great drink of hanging out--coffee--was one of the Automats' specialties. But while the glass doors enclosed plenty of pastries and desserts that we might associate with coffee shops today, there were plenty of meal meals as options--chicken pot pie, sandwiches, no word on whether Horn and Hardart considered a hot dog a sandwich.
If you're thinking that this sounds a lot like your dream fast food restaurant--yes, many scholars have considered automat meals the first fast food. Beat that, White Castle.
During the initial era of what we think of as "fast food restaurants" today--White Castle was founded in 1921--automats continued to do excellent business. Between Philadelphia and NYC, they operated nearly 90 locations in the 1920s; they sold a line of prepackaged meals that customers could buy at a regular store and eat at home; they--I promise I am not making it up--sponsored a weekly children's radio show. You want to know how Bernadette Peters got started in theatre and show business? The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour. (The gimmick was the radio as an entertainer or baby-sitter, parallel to the Automat: "less work for mother.")
But ultimately, White Castle did beat that. Although Automats and what we think of as fast food restaurants coexisted and prospered together for a long time, eventually the drawing points of Automats--glorious decor, cheap food, and a place to hang out--were available to people in other and more accessible forms. The rise of suburbs and the popularization of the hamburger as America's Food (helped, in part, by White Castle's owners commissioning a university-level, scientific study of the nutritional value of hamburgers whose results were never released) left a dwindling market for midday lunches and children's snack times. In the 1980s, Horn and Hardart even sold most of their final, still-open Automats to fast food franchises.
Not White Castle this time. Burger King.
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