The Automat: When restaurants were coin-operated

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

For much of the 20th century the Automat was a destination restaurant – a gleaming, coin-operated self-service eatery, whose chrome doors opened to reveal comfort foods to match Mom's cooking. Correspondent Mo Rocca talks with Lisa Hurwitz, director of a nostalgic new documentary about Horn & Hardart's chain of cafeterias; and with Broadway star Chita Rivera, who fondly remembers her days as a dance student, when the Automat was a home away from home.