The Edison Automat

Jersey City’s Automat Kitchen Serves Comfort Food From Little Windows | Eater NY

"In Jersey City, among the office buildings and shopping malls of Newport, I visited Automat Kitchen, a sliver of a space with street‑facing windows, a scatter of tables inside and a few seats in the courtyard; the center of attention is an anteroom with 20 windows arrayed in two rows (much larger than the originals). The food is not left in the windows but made to order: you select on a touchscreen terminal that requires full name, email, phone and credit card details, and then wait — my lunch took almost 15 minutes. The menu, credited to chef Quirino Silva, includes comfort classics reinvented; I ordered a chicken pot pie ($12.99), miso roasted broccoli ($6.99) and a breakfast taco with chorizo and cheese ($4.74), though the Frito pie burrito I wanted was unavailable. When ready my name appeared on a video screen and a text with a secret code opened window No. 6, where I found a plastic bag of carryout packaging (some apparently biodegradable, some not). The chicken pot pie was deliriously good — generous dark and light shredded chicken, thick beige gravy like that poured over a chicken‑fried steak, extra diced vegetables and a puff‑pastry crust on top that sufficed. The miso roasted broccoli was tasty though not charred as promised (it seemed steamed) with a pale miso that added sweetness. The breakfast taco fared worse: the flour tortilla was way too small to wrap the egg, cubed sweet potato, chorizo and scant cheese, leaving the taco dominated by sweet potatoes. Overall I enjoyed the meal and appreciated that it was made to my exact specifications, but I missed the instant bounty of the old automats; Automat Kitchen suggests a future of long waits, contactless carryout and more time staring into the dead eye of the computer. The cost of my meal plus tax and tip was about $30 and change." - Robert Sietsema