Could the Automat Revival Solve Restaurant Staffing Issues?

Horn & Hardart gave us a vision of what it means to have a working vending machine with practical utility. The 1950s saw the birth of the first idealized vending machine, an enormous construction made of metal and glass that served thousands of city-dwellers each day and night. No waiters, just steaming plates and a glass door that's opened by a coin.

The ancestors of the first semi-automatic machines to serve food and drink are still in use today, though instead of restaurants and bars, we see them in public spaces, perhaps small shops.

Reportedly the first vending machine was in Berlin in 1895, created by a company named Quisiana. The machine served sandwiches, wine, and coffee, and was considered a great success. A real old-school vending machine.

Japan is another nation that embraced restaurant automation early and still does through its conveyor belt sushi lines that deliver small plates of food around to seated customers. Even international sushi restaurants adapted this…