A century ago, the name Horn and Hardart was as recognizable as Starbucks, McDonald’s and Chipotle is today.
Joe Horn and Frank Hardart created the first Horn & Hardart coffee shop in Philadelphia in 1888. They expanded across the city during the next decade, but then went in a different direction.
They took a popular idea that was sweeping Europe and on June 9, 1902 opened up their first automat in Philadelphia. A decade later they would open their first in New York City’s Time Square.
Horn & Hardart offered all kinds of food, but its claim to fame was coffee. Said to have the best coffee on the East Coast, the automats made fresh-dripped brewed coffee. It was so fresh, that workers would toss leftover coffee after 20 minutes.
The automats were the place to eat lunch for decades. New York City had 50 of them, feeding about 350,000 meals a day. The food was good and cheap. Most dishes were only a nickel or two until the early 1950s.
Fast food chains slowly killed the automats. The last one closed in 1991.
Comedian Mel Brooks loved automats. He wrote and sang our Song of the Day, “At the Automat.”He volunteered to write and sing our Song of the Day after being interviewed for the 2022 documentary about the automat. Director Lisa Hurwitz brought in an orchestra to record with Brooks.
Brooks reminisces in the documentary about automats, along with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Colin Powell, Carl Reiner, Elliott Gould, Janet Leigh and others.
Song of the Day is created by Sheldon Zoldan, and audio production by Simon Dunham with WGCU.
