Philly’s new Brooklyn Dumpling Shop serves food through Automat windows

During the pandemic, entrepreneurs raced to find restaurant ideas that minimized contact between staff and customers and required comparatively small staffs. One winner in this space was Stratis Morfogen, who applied modern technology to the century-old idea of the Automat, a method of delivering food through a wall of lockers with glass windows.

With a menu of dumplings and other snacky foods driven by app-based ordering, Morfogen’s first Brooklyn Dumpling House opened in 2021 in Manhattan. (The hipper “Brooklyn” just sounded better, and besides, he already owned Brooklyn Chop House.)

On Wednesday, Philadelphia — where the Automat was introduced to the United States in 1902 — got the first of at least three Brooklyn Dumpling Shop locations. Last weekend, owners removed the paper from the windows at 308 South St. for a soft opening. There are 25 seats in an upstairs dining room, and there’s some counter space on the ground floor, but Brooklyn Dumpling Shop is designed primarily for takeout and delivery.

The second Philadelphia franchise is teed up for January at 3400 Lancaster Ave., near Drexel University, while a third is poised to open in March at 1504 Sansom St., near Rittenhouse Square.

Soon, there will be 28 Brooklyn Dumpling Shops from New York to Texas, including one actually located in Brooklyn.

The Philadelphia-area franchisees, Nick Sordoni, Stephen Hudacek, and Alex Flack, envision at least 30 locations in Pennsylvania and Camden County, N.J.

Sordoni, whose background is in Silicon Valley startups, said Hudacek found Brooklyn Dumpling Shop while searching on the Internet one sleepless night more than two years ago. After inquiring about it, they met the founders and visited the Manhattan restaurant.

Sordoni and his partners do not have food experience, but a franchise like this “seemed like something that was completely reasonable for us to take on and learn on the job.” At first, they signed on for five locations in the Philadelphia-South Jersey area but then expanded their territory to all of Pennsylvania. They foresee 40 locations, in all.

After securing locations and ordering equipment, they began the permitting process. “I don’t want to bash the city of Philadelphia, but it wasn’t an easy or clear process,” Sordoni said, estimating that the South Street opening had been delayed six months.

The menu is posted online and in the shop. Customers use a scanner or delivery app to place food orders, and receive a QR code on their phone or in-person receipt. (Until the grand opening on Dec. 26, customers must order in-person only.)

Customers get a text or alert when the order is ready. When they scan the QR code at a kiosk, one of the 10 locker windows will open to serve the food. Windows are heated or chilled, depending on the dish. The codes and lockers prevent customers and delivery drivers from taking a wrong order. There is a delivery window into the kitchen next to the windows, in case of snags. The eatery stations an employee to help customers.

“Some people make an order and know when they will walking by,” Flack said. “They’ll walk in, and [the food will] be in the box. Scan the code, and you’re in and out in under a minute.”

The dumpling list includes savory cheesesteak, mac and cheese, bacon cheeseburger, Reuben, Korean barbecue, and gluten-free pork and cabbage (five for $9, 12 for $20), as well as dessert dumplings (PB&J, brownie, and apple pie). There are potstickers in broth, “chop chop” bowls with proteins over rice or waffle fries, peanut noodles with optional protein, smash burgers (a decent deal for $7), and sides.

Brooklyn Dumpling Shop is a 2.0 version of the long-ago Horn & Hardart Automat, a precursor of fast food. In 1888, Joe Horn and Frank Hardart opened their first Horn & Hardart restaurant on 13th Street near Chestnut in Philadelphia. Fourteen years later, the H&H location at 818 Chestnut St. — which still bears a neon sign — was outfitted with an Automat, a German-engineered tech marvel that turned H&H into a “waiterless restaurant.”

The Automat allowed customers to skip the cafeteria line and head to a wall of clear glass windows, behind which stood dozens of foods — pieces of pie, sandwiches, and a side dish like creamed spinach. Pop a nickel into the slot and the door would open. Kitchen workers replenished the windows.

H&H, which had a reported 157 locations in Philadelphia and New York, served as many as 500,000 patrons a day. The last store, in Manhattan, closed in 1991.

A 35-foot piece of the original is on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and The Automat’s history was told in a 2021 documentary, The Automat.

Brooklyn Dumpling Shop’s hours at 308 South St. are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday to Saturday.