From Old Automats To Power Lunches, The NYPL Takes On Lunch Hour In NYC
May 24, 2012, 11:17 a.m.
The NYPL's upcoming exhibition Lunch Hour NYC> won't open to the public until June 22—but it already has taught us things we didn't know and whetted our appetite.
The NYPL's upcoming exhibition Lunch Hour NYC won't open to the public until June 22nd—but it already has managed to teach us things we didn't know and whetted our appetite for the full show. Who knew school lunches got their start in New York?
To see what we mean, check out the NYPL's little preview for the upcoming exhibit, below. Not only are they going to have a reconstructed section from an actual Horn & Hardart Automat for you to walk around but they'll also have some old push carts on display with stories about New York street foods (pretzels!) not to mention tons of menus and lunch stories and a history of peanut butter. Because you can never know enough about peanut butter!
If you just can't wait to to learn a little bit about the history of lunch, we got you covered. Just sit back and watch this brief history of the late, great Horn & Hardart's automats. Though the automat concept hasn't been a thing in NYC for decades (sorry Bamn!) it really was once a major part of the lunch hour routine. The last Horn & Hardart in NYC closed in April, 1991.
