Steve Scutellaro’s dad, Joe, had fond boyhood memories of making the short trip from Hoboken, N.J., to Manhattan with his grandmother—trips highlighted by lunch at one of the Horn & Hardart automats that thrived in the city in the first half of the 20th Century.
Those eateries, where busy urban dwellers could buy cheap food from vending machines, disappeared in the ’80s and ’90s, but the elder Scutellaro’s sentimentality for them remained, and he harbored dreams of one day reviving the concept. As a CPA, he had a lot of restaurant clients, and developed good contacts in the industry. So about 10 years ago, he and some friends in the business began talking about making his automat dream a reality.
His son wasn’t so sure.
“As somebody who never experienced the original automat and only knew about it from my dad … I was unsure whether or not that would hold any weight or make any type of impact with today’s customer,” he said.
The restaurant’s focal point would be a wall of boxes that resembled the automat machines of Scutellaro’s youth. Guests could order at kiosks in the restaurant and retrieve their meal from a designated cubby by entering a three-digit code that was texted to them.
At the time, his business plan proved to be cost-prohibitive. The hardware and software needed to make it work was too expensive, and smartphones were only just coming into use. He did, however, patent the technology for the lockable food boxes.
Three or four years ago, Joe Scutellaro returned to the idea. A similar concept, called Eatsa, had appeared on the scene. Smartphones were everywhere, and technology was becoming more affordable. Meanwhile, consumers were increasingly putting a premium on convenience.
He was not the only one to see an opportunity for an automat revival. In 2019, restaurateur Stratis Morfogen began working on a business plan for a concept called Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, in which customers could order dumplings from their phone and retrieve them from a wall of cubbies. And just last week, Marriott said it was testing high-tech vending machines in place of the breakfast buffet at two Fairfield Inn & Suites hotels. Guests can buy things like breakfast sandwiches, cereal and fruit via their smartphones’ bluetooth connection.
Photograph courtesy of Marriott
While the trend of fast, frictionless service predates the pandemic, the coronavirus has put it into overdrive by adding safety as a consideration. Over the past year, reduced human contact has become not only a perk but a necessity—making things like secure pickup boxes and contactless ordering even more attractive to consumers.
“It’s the same technology and safe convenience that I think people are not only looking for but have been utilizing throughout history,” said Mike Goscinski, senior director of external affairs for the National Automatic Merchandising Association, which represents the vending industry. “And it’s just, the pandemic has brought that to the market a little more rapidly than we’ve seen.
“It doesn’t surprise me that it’s now reaching into the direct delivery and restaurant space.”
Last summer, Morfogen described Brooklyn Dumpling Shop as “the perfect business model for the times,” highlighting its “zero human interaction” experience. And Automat Kitchen delayed its opening last April to make its technology more contactless. Customers can now order and open their food cubby right from their phone.
“It’s safe,” said Steve Scutellaro, the restaurant’s head of technology and marketing. “You don’t have to talk to or speak to anyone this way if you don’t want to.”
Automat Kitchen finally opened in January, in a Jersey City business district near a PATH train station. It has attracted both walk-in guests from out of town as well as locals, who tend to use the order-ahead feature. And after roughly two months in business, Scutellaro is no longer worried about whether the old-fashioned concept will appeal to modern consumers.
“I’ve been really surprised in the fact that it really does,” he said.
While sales have been dampened by the pandemic, he’s been encouraged by the number of repeat customers. About 30% to 40% come back a second time, which he said is a testament to the food quality. The menu of American comfort favorites such as mac and cheese and chicken pot pie was developed in part by James Beard-nominated chef Philip Speer.
“We knew that the wall and the automat brand would be enough to get people in the door once, but if the food wasn’t good enough, they wouldn’t come back,” he said.
The menu is also why he’s undeterred by the fate of Eatsa, the early automat innovator that shut down in 2019 after struggling to operate across multiple markets.
“We would probably chalk that up to the fact that the world wasn’t ready for a quinoa-based restaurant,” he said. Automat Kitchen’s menu is broad and covers all three dayparts, which he believes will get guests to visit more regularly.
It is hoping to open a couple more company-owned stores in the Northeast over the next few years and is also looking to get into airports and train stations. And it’s working on licensing its patented pickup boxes to other restaurants.
“The concept was built with the idea of saving people time,” he said. “Even when the pandemic goes away, I think that’s going to still be pretty relevant.”