Free Republic

Like most people who've lived more than five decades, I have a few regrets. Some are deep and personal and as such none of your business. But some are less severe and can be borne lightly: prime among them is that, while I had the opportunity countless times, I never ate in an Automat. I had every chance; the last Automat in New York City, at 42nd St. and Third Avenue, closed in April of 1991, by which point I had been visiting the city every few months for a couple of years. It had fallen steeply since its heyday...

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...

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...

NEW YORK – A CEO of a fast-food company is causing a stir on social media after claiming that he wants to create a fully automated restaurant. “We could have a restaurant that’s focused on all-natural products and is much like an Eatsa, where you order on a kiosk, you pay with a credit or debit card, your order pops up, and you never see a person,” Carl’s Jr. CEO Andy Puzder told Business Insider. Puzder says the automated restaurant would be cheaper since he wouldn’t have to worry about rising minimum wage. “If you’re making labor more expensive, and...

Yes, the automat. No, not the Horn & Hardart Automat that appeared on the dining scene at the turn of the last century and finally closed the last of its 180 restaurants in New York in 1991. This is a brand-new concept. A hip new automat that dispenses comfort food "25 hours a day" in New York City's East Village. This I had to see. And taste. Now an automat, for those you who were not in New York from 1912 to 1991, is a wonderful system where all kinds of food -- hot food, cold food, desserts, and main...