Automated Restaurant Opens in NYC

Fox News NYC ^ | 12-15-2016 | Fox 5 NYC

[John S Mosby]

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - Imagine going out to eat and never interacting with a server or cashier. You can do that at a new restaurant in New York City.

Eatsa is an automated restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. It opened as an East Coast anchor for a small chain that started in California.

There are no cashiers and you order on an iPad or your phone. The meal appears in a little locker. Customers tap to open the door for their meal.

You'd better love quinoa. The food is all vegetarian. Bowls cost about $7.

The restaurant opened this week at 285 Madison Avenue, between 40th and 41st streets.

There are humans at Eatsa. They are in the back preparing the salads but are not seen by the customers.

The company was named Restaurant Business' 2016 Tech Accelerator of the Year.

[John S Mosby]

Awarded a "Techie" innovator award for RE-introducing a Dcepression era phenomenon restaurant... the AutoMat. But, with a new, techie snob very "un-democratic" change in access: the cashless society of the new world order. In the current cashless depression of EBT cards and homeless shelters--- this is the "upgrade" to point and click eating. And a true offshoot of ignoring the very real economic destruction wrought by obamaumao. How perfect a millenial answer, no contact, and no freaking cash, so we can't see the degradation effect on people and their mental health. How? The AutoMat used coin-slot vendor lockers... COINs, cash money. So that the truly down on their luck could come in and eat, with the money they could scrape up, find or better yet-- earn. Freepers here no doubt can relate their parents stories (those in NYC of the 30s anyway) of how for a nickel you could get a pie and some coffee. Or, how, if someone had literally nothing-- they could order hot water in a cup and mix in ketchup on the table to make a little tomato soup and KEEP THEIR DIGNITY. This techie crapola (as if it's some kind of brilliant invention and not an idea that came from Germany in 1901) makes me ill, in it's cultural bigotry and snobbery-- but it sooooo fits the german socialist computerati "brains" who think this is some new idea instead of a ripoff. Some will disagree. But look at the Vegan twist and the prices... this is for the snot nosed trust fund red diaper climate change granola Occupy crowd. Here's the Auto-Mat, true legend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx1E-kDpVQ0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrbyqUOObdU

[John S Mosby]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrbyqUOObdU

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx1E-kDpVQ0

[sevlex]

I got the Horn & Hardart Succotash Blues.

[Arkansas Toothpick]

An automat? How is that innovative?

[Arkansas Toothpick]

Sorry, I just now saw that you addressed this in the comments section.

[traderrob6]

“Imagine going out to eat and never interacting with a server or cashier”

You mean like an automat?

[fwdude]

I know. They’re acting as if this is original. They are actually 85 years late to the party.

[NohSpinZone]

Not a fan. I enjoy interacting with restaurant workers and I always reward exemplary service. This is all on the unions and politicians and their insane drive to push above-the-going-rate wages. The only real victims are young workers for whom restaurants are an important source of starter jobs.

[wastoute]

Remember those three piece suits you donated? Shoulda kept them...

[Impala64ssa]

I remember as a kid one of the last Horn and Hardarts, near Madison Square Garden. Thanks to the push for a $15/hr minimum wage for flipping burgers, they’ll be more where this came from. The millenials don’t realize they should be careful what they wish for.

[Wallace T.]

The only difference is the method of payment, through an IPad or a phone, rather than cash handed to a cashier. King Solomon said 3000 years ago that there is nothing new under the sun.

[Captain Compassion]

Automats were cool.

[Covenantor]

The original Horn & Hardart Automat opened in Philadelphia in 1888... not typo.

[Kickass Conservative]

I remember going to the Automat in NYC with my Parents when I was a Kid.

I thought it was cool then and I think it’s cool now.

[fwdude]

Thanks for that info. I was thinking about just when my 80-year-old mother said she visited H&H in her former hometown. Didn’t know it was that old even then.

She said it was a real treat. Usually for her birthday.

[SamAdams76]

I’ll have to check this place out. It’s only a few blocks from me.

The concept will really take off when we can do this with actual food

[lee martell]

I like a little interaction with waitstaff, so long as the service is pleasant and efficient. It’s nice to have a choice. Sometimes I’ll choose the drive thru vs going inside of a fast food place. Other times, I want the full experience of being hosted, welcomed in and waited on like , well, like royalty.

[Rebelbase]

What's old is new again.

[John S Mosby]

Supposing Mickey D’s re-conceptualized (through a new subsidiary— with franchising opportunity) the AutoMat— but- served REAL food... like steak, potatoes, corn beef hash, vegetables, soul food.

And. used. cash.— nothing over 20 accepted in scanners (like car washes) and changers to provide coins for the serving locker doors. Or, better yet— bit coins as “exchange tokens”. think of that...

What do y’all think. I’ve not the time to do this— but I would invest. Because— in large segments of society we are really in trouble— and the Federal Reserve has decided to tighten the money. Maybe this is a better post for zero hedge?

[NTHockey]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.