Chris Knight - Friday
If you could travel back in time to New York City in the 1950s, you would not find a single McDonald’s – the first one wouldn’t arrive until 1972. But you would come across dozens of Horn & Hardart eateries, more commonly known as Automats.
© Provided by National Post
Breakfast at Tiffany's, lunch at the Automat: Audrey Hepburn makes a selection.
Enter, and you’d find a gleaming, Machine Age self-serve restaurant, its nickel and brass, glass and marble construction not unlike a 19th-century time machine itself. For a handful of nickels, you could feed various slots and retrieve from tiny glass doors creamed spinach, meatloaf and apple pies. Dolphin-head spigots served some of the best coffee in America.
Director Lisa Hurwitz has crafted a loving history of the Automat, interviewing former executives and famous fans. Mel Brooks is so happy to participate that he writes and records a song, There Was Nothing Like The Coffee At the Automat.
In a whirlwind 78 minutes we learn the history of the Automat, its glory days through the 1930s and ’40s, and its eventual decline. (The last one closed in 1991.) It survives in songs, old cartoons and movies, including this wonderful documentary. The memories are so vivid you can almost taste them.
The Automat opens Feb. 18 in Vancouver and Ottawa; March 4 in Regina and Saskatoon; and March 16 in Toronto.
4.5 stars out of 5
Enter, and you’d find a gleaming, Machine Age self-serve restaurant, its nickel and brass, glass and marble construction not unlike a 19th-century time machine itself. For a handful of nickels, you could feed various slots and retrieve from tiny glass doors creamed spinach, meatloaf and apple pies. Dolphin-head spigots served some of the best coffee in America.
Director Lisa Hurwitz has crafted a loving history of the Automat, interviewing former executives and famous fans. Mel Brooks is so happy to participate that he writes and records a song, There Was Nothing Like The Coffee At the Automat.
In a whirlwind 78 minutes we learn the history of the Automat, its glory days through the 1930s and ’40s, and its eventual decline. (The last one closed in 1991.) It survives in songs, old cartoons and movies, including this wonderful documentary. The memories are so vivid you can almost taste them.
The Automat opens Feb. 18 in Vancouver and Ottawa; March 4 in Regina and Saskatoon; and March 16 in Toronto.
4.5 stars out of 5
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