The 100-year story of the iconic restaurant chain Horn & Hardart, the inspiration for Starbucks, where generations of Americans ate and drank coffee together at communal tables. “The Automat” recounts the history of this iconic restaurant chain, which served affordable-priced quality food for more than a century and revolutionized the nation’s restaurant scene with comfortable interiors and state of the art technology. They welcomed customers who had been excluded from many restaurants of the time, including immigrants, the working-class, Blacks, and women. Horn & Hardart’s technology captured the public’s imagination like nothing else in 1900’s— the customer put nickels into slots and little windows opened to reveal the customer’s pick, be it a slice of pie, macaroni and cheese, or a Salisbury steak. The gleaming glass and stainless-steel windows looked like nothing else in existence. On Wednesday, May 25, meet the filmmaker on a zoom discussion at 6:00 PM (register at www.rivertownfilm.org).

This film will be screened in the Nyack Center, South Broadway at Depew in Nyack. Proof of vaccination and masking are required.