Is Europe bringing back the Automat? No; it never really left

photo by Lucio Tonina/SITOS

We, as humans, have just taken a huge step towards the utopia that the Jetsons live in*: vending machines that make fresh pizza. I know its not a foodarackacycle (i'm appalled that I can't find a picture of this to link to) but we're getting there.
From the NY Times:

Over the last decade, Mr. Torghele, 56, an entrepreneur in this northern Italian city who first made money selling pasta in California, has developed a vending machine that cooks pizza. The machine does not just slip a frozen pizza into a microwave. It actually whips up flour, water, tomato sauce and fresh ingredients to produce a piping hot pizza in about three minutes.

The machine, which Mr. Torghele calls Let’s Pizza, is only the spearhead of a trend. Restaurants reminiscent of the old Horn & Hardart chain in the United States, which are fully automatic, are also showing up around the Continent.

Unlike the old automats (the last Horn & Hardart closed in 1991), which were staffed with workers who refilled the machines with creamed spinach and baked beans as fast as customers pulled them out, these restaurants consist entirely of vending machines.

While Horn & Hardart may have closed down, there are still automats to be had, and right here in New York, at Bamn! at St. Mark's Place - though be warned, human hands still make the food before shoving it into the little warm food-cubbyholes. Also, if you find yourself in Amsterdam, you can always hit up Febo (its grosser than the commercial lets on):




*claims of utopia are debatable, but will be saved for a future post, as The Jetsons are to me what Hamlet is to Stephen Dedalus in Ulysses