Bamn Automatic: The Automat is Back

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Everything old is new again, including the venerable automat. Though a bit before my time, most New Yorkers know about Automats and how they fed millions of busy people with innovative and automated self-serve ease back in the early 1900s. They eventually were run out of business by fast food restaurants who could cook and distribute fresh food faster.

Today a new startup called Bamn is dusting off the automat concept and bringing it to a new generation of busy New Yorkers - this time in Manhattan’s East Village at 37 St. Mark’s Place between (2nd and 3rd Avenue.) If any NYC residents are reading this, shoot us a live pic or send in a verdict of how the good or bad food is.

Bamn provides tasty, inexpensive, real food for people on the go. It’s the return of the automat, filled with bite-sized burgers, mac & cheese, pizza, chicken strips, grilled cheese, hot dogs, pork buns, and lots of other great stuff - made fresh throughout the day. Source: Bamn

We Say: In terms of the technology, this sure doesn’t look that interesting. If you could pay by cell phone, or press some blinking LED controls, then you might get us in the door, but it looks like your average college vending machine with some trendy pink signs thrown in. And why not toss in some other non-food items like cell phones, iPod chargers or headphones? Compare it to the original (after the jump) and you’ll see that this is not ground-breaking technology.

The History of the Automat

Horn & Hardart is a company that came to prominence as the proprietors of the first automat in New York City. Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart had already opened an automat in Philadelphia, but their “Automat” at Broadway and 13th Street, in New York City, a cafeteria with its prepared foods behind small glass windows and coin-operated slots, created a sensation when it opened on July 7, 1912.

The automats were particularly popular during the Depression era, and their Macaroni and Cheese, Baked Beans, and Creamed Spinach were staple offerings. The company also popularized the notion of “take-out” food, with their slogan “Less work for Mother”. The chain remained popular through the 1950s. It declined with the rise of the fast-food restaurants; the last American Automat closed in 1991.

The name of the chain was a household word and the subject of jokes (such as Peter Schickele’s satirical piece “by” P. D. Q. Bach, Concerto for Horn and Hardart and the eponymous two-headed purple monster character(s) on Sesame Street.) Automats are no longer a viable concern in the United States, though a few continue to operate in the Netherlands. The Horn & Hardart name was also used for a chain of coffee shops in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Source: Answers.com