LUNCH HOUR NYC exhibit – New York Public Library

July 17th, 2012 by Mr. C

While enroute to catch some movie screenings at the NY Asian Film Festival playing at the Japan Society, I dived into the New York Public Library for a quick cool-off before my circuits started to overheat. I ran into this free & neat exhibit called LUNCH HOUR – NYC. The exhibition was basically a collection of artifacts that celebrated more than a century of New York lunches from the prestigious power lunch to street foods from push carts to home lunches, school lunches, and the Automat – a coin operated compartment that dispensed sandwiches, desserts , & hot meals!

No matter where you worked in the city, the first thing that inhabits your mind as the workday commences is — what am I having for lunch? With the variety of food and culture in NY on the low/high end and NYCs built for the need for speed – you can bet that you will be served lunch in no time before you jump back into the rat race to produce.

Some of my favorite artifacts from the exhibit include the Horn & Hardart’s Automats, the Heinz dispenser, and the various menus on display from a chinese restaurant in chinatown called Hang Far Low (no-it’s not a joke) from the 1920s to a Japanese restaurant serving sushi and sukiyaki called Yoshino-ya from 1932. The NY Public library supposedly has a collection of 45,000 plus menus from the city dating back from 1842 to the present! I’ve got to flip through the old collection of menus when I have more time on a slow and rainy day.

There were also some really cool postcard recipes from Horn & Hardart’s Automat when you opened up some of the automat compartments on display! Check out some H&H Automat recipes for Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Burgundy Sauce With Beef and Noodles, and Pumpkin Pie below!

The LUNCH HOUR – NYC Exhibit runs through February 17, 2013. (FREE)

The New York Public Library
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street
New York, NY 10018-2788













(Hang Far Low menu in Chinatown from the 1920s)







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