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That was the Horn & Hardart restaurants of Baltimore, Philadelphia and NYCity, but now all gone. The name of automat is misleading as there was a full kitchen staffed but there was only self-serving in the dining areas. What made it inexpensive is that between the dining area and kitchen was a glass-fronted wall of self-serve column of cubby dispensers where a single serve of a food item was displayed. This eliminated waitresses and minimized the cleanup as the customer was encouraged to put the dirty dishes in a marked area.

Looking through the glass cubby door, the diner chose what looked good. Then, using a coin slot, you paid for that item and took it out for table or take-out. After you did that, the cubby was refilled by a human kitchen worker for the next customer. The restaurants were very successful during the depression because the clientele bought items not meals, which meant that it was not embarrassing when money was tight. For the chain it worked because they frequently sold a meal at a higher price because each item was individually costed. According to the records, their most popular items were low cost mac&cheese, baked beans, buns, fish cakes and coffee, most in the 25-75¢ range.

One wonders if this may be where Disneyland got the idea for their 'A' to 'E' ride tickets because at these stores you could buy lettered tokens at a cashier rather than feeding many nickels at the coin slot. I have vague memories of being impressed when, as a child, eating at one of these on a NYCity visit. The chain ran from 1902 to 1991 but its heyday was the Depression to the 1950s.