he Automat
April 22, 2025 | Doors 6pm, Screening 6:30pm
Live at Contois Auditorium, Burlington & 118 Elliot, Brattleboro 
Screen from Home, Same Day Only
Directed by Lisa Hurwitz
2021, USA, 79 Minutes

PREVIEW

Originating in Philadelphia, Horn & Hardart’s Automat was America’s original and most beloved restaurant chain where generations of Americans ate and drank coffee at elegant communal marble tables, free from social barriers. Pie? Coffee? Put your nickel in, then open the little glass door to a freshly made delight. This ritual made Horn & Hardart the place to meet, where people connected over good food and coffee. The Automat illustrates how the company served the public great food and at the same time treated its employees with fairness and integrity. The legacy of the Automat spans a century, chronicling it’s rise as an iconic restaurant chain that inspired Starbucks, and it’s eventual decline, sealed by the rise of fast food that forever transformed the American dining landscape.