Automat Makes a Comeback at Brooklyn Restaurant

A restaurant in New York is giving new life to an old invention.

Brooklyn Dumpling Shop is bringing back the automat. They were vending machines of sorts that would take up entire walls of restaurants. Customers put in their coins, open a door and pulled out their food. This new version doesn’t take coins. Your order is placed and paid for on your smartphone. A text notifies you when it’s ready.

Stratis Morfogen, co-founder, Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, told CBS News, “I believe this will save our industry.”

Just three employees can serve 300 people and customers so far are delighted with it.

"I like to run late, so they keep it warm and hot for me, that'd be perfect,” one customer said.

"I think it's amazing, and I think it's really something for the future,” said another.

With the ever-changing restaurant industry, investors in this shop say they’re betting on customers welcoming more technology into their dining experience.

“When we get like the TikTok generation of the 15 to 30-year-olds, they come in and they're super comfortable with this concept — because they live off their phone,” Morfogen said.

Related Stories