automat

plural automats · alternative Automat

1. A vending machine for food.
2. historicalA cafeteria consisting of vending machines.

   People from all levels of society ate in Automats at least occasionally. Movies often cast their cosmopolitan stars dropping coins in Horn & Hardart's slots, and tourists felt compelled to visit an Automat.

   1986, Philip Langdon, Orange Roofs, Golden Arches: The Architecture of American Chain Restaurants, Alfred A. Knopf

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   The Automat, whose gleaming chrome-and-glass machines brought high-tech eating to a low-tech era, has gulped down its last coin and served up its last helping of macaroni, baked beans and kaiser rolls. The last Automat in the country, in midtown Manhattan, closed on Tuesday, a victim of changing eating habits. […] There were 30 Automats in New York when Mr. Stern was a young Western Union bicycle messenger stopping in for lemon meringue pie between deliveries.

   1991 April 11, James Barron, “Last Automat Closes, Its Era Long Gone”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Dec 2022

   While automats were hailed by the thrifty populace as being “waiter-free” and—even more appealing—“tip-free,” someone had to cook the food, stock the little compartments, keep the floors clean, bus the tables, refill the sugar and condiments, and exchange larger coinage into nickels, since patrons rarely entered with enough nickels for a meal.

   2009, David Freeland, Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan’s Lost Places of Leisure, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 172

plural Automats

1. Alternative letter-case form of automat, in particular one operated by Horn & Hardart.

   When King George sat down in Perylon Hall he thrust his gray topper under the chair, just as you do when you're in the Automat.

   1939 June 12, “At the fair”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Nov 2025

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   Breaking away from the traditional self-service policy of the Automats, which has been followed since the company was organized in 1911, the new restaurant will mark Horn & Hardart's first expansion in the New York area since 1938.

   1949 December 18, “No coins in slots at the new Automat”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Nov 2025