Downtown Lunch Spots back in "the day"

[EastsideAl]

When I was going to Cass Tech, 1963-66, I remember going to lunch downtown at the Automat. The place had your food behind the little clear plastic doors, like the ones in modern vending machines today. You would put your money in the one you wanted and the door would open. You could get anything you wanted. It was a new idea at the time but it didn’t last long. I don’t remember where it was, maybe there was more then one. Anyone know?

Automats were very popular on the east coast, and particularly in New York, for several decades. Going to the automat was one of the "exotic" things we almost always did when visiting my cousins in NYC. I honestly never knew that Detroit had one.

On the history of automats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_&_Hardart
http://www.theautomat.net/
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...ect_aug01.html

After school time during my Cass years, or years spent hanging around people who went to Cass, was passed at the Quickie Donuts on the south side of Capitol Park [[until we were banned, that is). Always had an order of french fries with extra salt poured on, a coke, and a chocolate frosted donut. Ahhhh youth...