What happened to cheap food? Diners, Automats, and affordable eating

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:    • Find the history of your NYC apartmen...  

See 1940s NYC Tax Photos here: https://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/se...

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-evol...

NYTimes article More Than Coffee: New York’s Vanishing Diner Culture by George Blecher: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/ny...

100 Years of U.S Consumer Spending by the U.S. Department of Labor: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/...

If you want to learn more about Celebrate the Century stamps Stampman did a great video explaining it:    • Celebrate the Century