Word: hardart
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Many New Yorkers are nostalgic for the art deco diners that once thrived in the city's neighborhoods. Others yearn for the specialties that used to be prepared for the Horn & Hardart Automat cafeterias. A new spot on Manhattan's East Side aims to satisfy both groups. Dine-O-Mat, a '50s-style chrome and neon diner, features many of the old Horn & Hardart dishes. And why not? H&H owns the budget-priced eatery and plans to open three more around New York this year...
...Horn & Hardart is a bit of Americana, isn't it? I suppose anyone who ever visited New York City wanted to go to Horn & Hardart to put nickels, dimes and more lately quarters in the Automat windows...
...Horn & Hardart President Frederick H. Guterman Nostalgia, however, is hardly the recipe for a successful business-as no one knows better than Guterman. A year ago, he was hired to rescue the chain of 32 New York-area restaurants from a deep slump that caused it to lose $15 million in 1971 and 1972. Guterman, 52, has no background in the food business; he spent 13 years at ITT as an executive in the aerospace, electro-optical and industrial-products divisions...
Guterman's main attempt so far has been to create a circus atmosphere. At lunch in Horn & Hardart's branch at Eighth Avenue and 58th Street in Manhattan, customers stand three deep to eat at a new "Burger in the Park" counter, complete with plastic-flower-lined paths, AstroTurf and cut-out clouds. At other outlets, rock concerts draw young late-night customers despite fear of muggings. A double-decker Horn & Hardart bus tours Manhattan free, stopping at such favorite tourist spots as the U.N. and the Empire State Building-as well as at 17 Horn & Hardarts. Meanwhile...
More important, he is using the company's real estate holdings-appraised at $15 million-for diversification. Horn & Hardart recently sold a block-sized commissary for $4,000,000 and used the money to help buy Hanover House Industries, a $17 million-a-year mail-order business. Guterman also is talking joint hotel-restaurant ventures with a big motel builder. The vaudeville aura seems to have carried him away, however; he has approached Soviet authorities with the idea of opening an Automat in Moscow. "Can you imagine the excitement that would provoke?" he beams...