Today we’re talking about diners, cafeterias, and Automats: the missing piece in modern eating. If you’ve cooked in a small old apartment kitchen, you might ask, how did everyone cook all their meals here. The answer: maybe they didn’t. Horn & Hardart Automats and diners historically are a big part of city eating. What else comes up in the video? IKEA, Celebrate the Century stamps, horses, and a splash of Gilmore Girls.
If you want to learn about the history of your NYC apartment, check out my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dw_4nSog8g
See 1940s NYC Tax Photos here: https://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/NYCMA~5~5
Found menus and discussion of the Automat here: https://theautomat.com/
The documentary: The Automat directed by Lisa Hurwitz
All diner information came from The Evolution of the American Diner by Cassidy Nemick: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-evolution-of-the-american-diner/the-original-lunch-wagons?path=index
NYTimes article More Than Coffee: New York’s Vanishing Diner Culture by George Blecher: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/nyregion/diners-new-york-city.html
100 Years of U.S Consumer Spending by the U.S. Department of Labor: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cesan.pdf
If you want to learn more about Celebrate the Century stamps Stampman did a great video explaining it: https://youtu.be/M542yi5k6EU
TL;DW: Cars caused people to spend more on transportation and made third places disappear.
This video is fantastic. She did one just recently about celebrity house tours talking about how square footage is precious and we make it hard for people to grow through life living in higher density housing.