Eyes on the pies

Patrons line up “like payday depositors” in a bank, waiting to drop a few nickels in a slot for favorites like baked beans and Salisbury steak, freshly made each day and kept in “post-officelike boxes.” This New York City Automat, described in the March 1942 National Geographic, was part of an East Coast chain that sold 72,000 pieces of pie a day. Inspired by German “waiterless restaurants,” Joseph V. Horn and Frank Hardart opened the first U.S. Automat in Philadelphia in 1902 and soon built an empire. But by the ’60s, other fast-food joints were luring customers; the last Manhattan outlet closed in 1991. Automats live on in Amsterdam and returned to New York in 2006 at an East Village locale. —Marc Silver

(From the Flashback Archive at ngm.com)

I’m a sucker for all this self-serve stuff. Especially when it involves pie. If I ever make it out to the East Coast, I will definitely make a visit to the East Village.