Bamn! Bamn! Bamn! the Food Automat is Back!

They were romantic. They were convenient. They were full of good food and simple drinks. They were the automats.

Not since the days of the classic 1962 movie That Touch of Mink, where Doris Day's friend Audrey Meadows stocked the automat machines with wax-wrapped fare that customers dropped coins in to receive, have automats been at their height of success.

Now, Bamn! Food (see BamnFood.com) is bringing back the coin- and bill-operated vending machines of yesteryear, begun by Horn & Hardart.

"Many of us were truly blessed by Horn & Hardart," wrote Anne M. Fitzsimmons to the Smithsonian as she reminisced on the hard, poor days circa World War II.

"A group of us had been having a series of eye operations and were nearly penniless," Fitzsimmons wrote. "When we were ambulatory, we could ask for a bowl of hot water at the Automat (no questions asked), go sit at a table, grab a ketchup bottle, pour it into the water, break up a packet of saltines that were always available and have a meal. Many destitute people did this."

Whether Bamn Food - whose iridescent pink location glows up the night at 37 St. Mark's Place in New York - will be as much of a compassionate boon to its customers remains to be seen.

"Bamn food takes you back…" so says Bamn's folks on BamnFood.com, "…back to the smells, the tastes, the thrill of that immediate gratification. Best of all, it only costs a few bucks and won't slow you down."

Bamn was co-founded by David Leong, a graduate of New York University's School of Business, and Robert Kwak, a "New Jersey native with an entrepreneurial spirit, [who] is responsible for the day-to-day operations."

Nobu, Bamn's principal and design control founder, is - according to his witty BamnFood.com profile - is responsible for branding and marketing. Nobu's Bamn profile also entertains readers with the following thought-provoking Haiku: #233:

one of us
can not be
wrong

The Bamn food trio of creative geniuses mark the return of a popular and easy, (albeit more expensive than decades ago), cubby-hole meal of Bamn fare like "bite-sized burgers, mac & cheese, pizza, chicken strips, grilled cheese, hot dogs, pork buns, and lots of other great stuff - made fresh throughout the day" for Bamn customers on the go.

No doubt Bamn Food has struck a gold mine with it's gorgeously designed hearty and hot food choices - some with an Asian twist - to keep up with hungry customers forever on the go.

Bamn serves as a model for a successful return to a food serving style that should have never disappeared, and predictably we will see Bamn Food locations sprout up nationwide, offering delicious meals to Bamn-heads across the country.