Sometimes, the best place to source innovation is from the past. That’s exactly the case with the debut of an automat at Emerald City Bagels on the Eastside Beltline.
Built by Braimex, a Spanish company specializing in such vending machines, the automat at Emerald City on the Beltline serves hot bagel sandwiches from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily. The automat is adjacent to a to-go window where customers can also order drinks or pick up beverages ordered online.
Jackie Halcrow, who co-owns Emerald City Bagels with her mother, Deanna, said she’s been wanting to incorporate an automat for a long time.
“In the early 2000s, there was an automat that opened on St. Mark’s [Place] in New York City that I went to, and it stuck with me forever,” she said. While their East Atlanta Village location wasn’t conducive to including an automat, the Beltline location, which the Halcrows opened last July, provided a fitting opportunity.
The first automat was created by Quisana in Berlin in 1895, and Philadelphia entrepreneurs Joe Horn and Frank Hardart struck a deal with the manufacturer during a 1901 trip to Germany. The following year, the first American automat opened in Philadelphia. A decade later, H&H Automats took off in New York City, peaking in popularity in the 1960s, before falling out of favor in the 1970s with the rise of fast food restaurants in America.
The last H&H-branded automat in New York City closed on East 42nd Street in 1991.
Halcrow said she’d searched for the ideal automat for quite some time before finally settling on the Spanish company. “Most existing automats now don’t look like the original automats from the early 20th century,” she explained. “They’re all super futuristic looking with LED lights or [are] like a locker where you pre-order.”
The design of the automat they chose matches Emerald City’s turn-of-the-century New York bagel shop aesthetic. “[Bagels] became popular in New York City at the turn of the [20th] century,” Halcrow said. “So it seems like a natural pairing to go with something that was really popular at the time.”
Emerald City’s automat bagel options are simple: the machine features 28 slots, with each column stocking a particular sandwich. The current rotation includes three varieties of bacon, egg, and cheese ($11) and a vegetarian egg and cheese bagel sandwich ($7.50). The mother-daughter duo will adjust the automat menu to reflect customer preferences and will also include rotating seasonal specials.
To meet the shop’s high-quality food standards and food safety regulations, all slots are set to 160 degrees Fahrenheit to keep sandwiches at the proper temperature. No sandwich is accessible for longer than an hour (per food safety guidelines, cooked animal products can sit at room temperature for up to two hours before entering the danger zone for bacterial growth). If a customer tries to purchase a sandwich past the hour marker, the slot remains locked so the person can’t remove it.
The Halcrows will test the automat’s hours and sandwich selections over the next few weeks, based on customer demand. But for anyone concerned about automat sandwiches selling out at Emerald City Bagels before 1 p.m., the plan is to continue replenishing the machine while supplies last at the shop.
Emerald City Bagels, 665 Auburn Avenue, Old Fourth Ward on the Eastside Beltline. Shop open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Automat open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily while supplies last.
