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A trio of lemon meringue pies (two quarters only) sit inside vending windows at the Horn and Hardart Automat at Third Avenue and 42nd in New York. Once thought to be the restaurant of the future, these gleaming chrome and glass marvels of "mechanistic splendor" were mere relics when this photo was taken by Neal Boenzi on March 10, 1978.

"The Automat concept was that you could walk in off the street, go to the girl in the booth and get you nickels, and get food," said Mr. Hardart in an interview with The New York Times. Also interviewed was Pat Costello, who had been eating there for 25 years, three times a day, because it cost less than cooking at his nearby apartment. Horn and Hardart was the last remaining Automat in the country when it finally closed on April 9, 1991.