Few places had such a diverse clientele as this: garbage collectors, academics, students and officials met here over the sandwich. Side by side with pints stood with polices, the strawberry smoothie was sipped by the thugs next to the ladies in robes.

On the ground floor of the Art Nouveau Koruna Palace, where the popular Koruna slot machine operated for many decades, it simply lived. Long queues have been forming here since the morning.

“It simply came to our notice then. The food here was cheap and tasty. Chlebíček cost eighty pennies and you bought a hot lunch for two crowns, “recalls Marie Mokrošová (92), a former employee of the soup kitchen, about the golden years.

“The most famous were probably the communards, so it was called local sausages. You were! You just bit into them and squirted a lot of juice! That is why we sold almost a meter in Koruna every day, “she continued.

Meat delicacies in the right casing were also popular with the chiefs of the time, such as President Antonín Zápotocký.

“Sometimes he had her sent to the office, other times he came for her in person. I operated it myself twice, “says the witness, who entered the Koruna vending machine in the mid-fifties at the age of twenty-six and worked here until its closure a few years after the revolution.”

The fame of the sausages was even so great that when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev came to Prague in the early 1960s, he planned one of his visits to the Crown.

“It simply came to our notice then. I see it as yesterday: the boss ran to work full of breath, filled a bucket of water and began to scrub the stairs herself, “recalls Marie Mokrošová. Then she said with a white glove she checked whether the tables and counters were clean.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it before or since,” laughs Mrs. Mokrosova. So the whole Crown was polished, but in the end Khrushchev just whistled around in a government limousine.

But people also adored tripe soup, potato pancakes or roast ducks. Piglets also went on sale.

“The chefs made the dough for them right up in the Crown. Then they handed it over to the saleswoman on the ground floor, and she then baked the meat right in front of the customers, “Marie Mokrošová hunts in her memory for more details and adds:” A retired ballerina from the Karlín Theater did it at the time, she was very nice. “

Other colleagues mixed salads, packed toasts or prepared the famous strawberry smoothie, popular especially with children and young people.

“Even among them, a lot of ladies worked who, for some reason, lost their original job or property. I remember, for example, Helena Zoufala, who used to have a similar machine with a man in Jungmannova Street. But then the communists took it from her, so she went to work in the Crown, “says Marie Mokrošová.

In total, according to her, around forty employees spun around the counters every day; one shift started at six in the morning and another in the afternoon. The buffet then functioned until late in the evening, closing at eleven. The door still didn’t open from start to finish. Around ten thousand people passed through the dining room every day.

After all, filmmakers also remember the kalupa in Koruna. Every time we wanted to shoot anything in a legendary company, they had to do it within a few hours of the night. This is exactly how the sequences from the well-known comedy Oldřich Lipský Jáchym were created, throw him into the machine.

“At first glance, it doesn’t look like that at all, but we actually shot all the scenes in Koruna at night. It would absolutely not be possible during the day, there was a huge rumble, “recalls the actor Luděk Sobota (78), who used to come here as a distracted František Koudelka to court Marta Vančurová, a toaster.

In addition, the filmmakers had to leave the buffet in exactly the same condition as the employees had previously handed it to them.

They did not return home until around five in the morning and passed the garbage man and the tired girls from Perlovka in the doorway, whom you can have something sharper before bed after the shift.

“Fortunately, I wasn’t too far home, I lived in Řeznická Street at the time. I was in bed in ten minutes, “says the actor today.

The crown’s earnings were enormous. This is also confirmed by Mrs. Mokrošová: “Every day, one hundred thousand crowns were brought to the bank. Do you know what it was once for money when one sandwich cost eighty or ninety pennies? “

According to her, many people ate at the buffet for free. “We didn’t want the money, for example, from the police, who protected us on Václavák. Everyone had free coffee all day, “he says of the then members of the Public Security.

It is said that they did not even charge the entire expenses to the grandmothers, who struggled with every crown due to their low income.

“My colleague Věra, who was in charge of the hot kitchen, always hid a piece of meat under the sauce dumplings and left it at that. She was glad she could make them a little better. Where else would they get lunch for two crowns? “She continues to remember.

A number of donkeys ate for free: all that was needed was cutlery and a slight push of the plate, and more hands reached for the uneaten leftovers.

“For example, it said, ‘Miss, is the red apple free?’ But no one was angry, the other users didn’t even want the “commuters” to get some beer to drink.

At the time of its creation, ie during the First Republic, the Koruna slot machine was nevertheless not a cheap affair at all. On the contrary. It was a chic enterprise, revolutionary in its time.

“With its self-service operation, when you threw a crown into the hole and a sandwich came out of the display case, it was a real European rarity. At that time, similar machines operated only in Germany or Austria, “says historian Martin Franc from the Masaryk Institute and the archives of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, who deal mainly with the history of nutrition and lifestyle. Prices were also related to this.

According to France, they were rather medium to higher, the poor did not go to the Crown in the 1930s.

“Even in the First Republic vending machine, it was true that people only come here for refreshments. It was not supposed to sit here, it was not planned. The emphasis was rather on the pace and speed, each host only had to swallow something and go, “describes Franc.

He adds: “The Koruna automat was supposed to be a symbol of a dynamic modern society in a short time, in which it does not linger much.”

The menu was therefore very similar during the First Republic as later under socialism, with mainly sausages and sandwiches available.

The blow of traditional vending machines was not planted until the 1990s. “Although it is true that they have been through a crisis before,” says the historian. Not much was invested in the establishments, which was evident.

“This is also shown in many period footage from the end of socialism; the equipment in the cafeterias was faded and the hygienic conditions were unsatisfactory. “

After the revolution, the Czechs became enthusiastic about the shiny fast food chains, which were a tempting novelty. Although mostly a much poorer menu, the vending machines rolled over in the competition.

Not only the famous Koruna vending machine fell, but also other similar soup kitchens in Prague: Vaňh’s fishmonger’s shop in the Yalta passage, the famous Libeň vending machine Svět, about which Bohumil Hrabal wrote in the short story collection Perličky na dně, and a self-service dining room in the Lucerna passage.

The U Rozvařilů dining room in the passage of the Archa Na Poříčí palace resisted for the longest time, ending up as the last functioning “coaster” of the old type – only a few years ago.

“Similar vending machines outside Prague, such as the Sputnik milk bar in Brno, have also ended. Even there, people used to go there on a large scale, mainly on steaks, smoked knees, tripe or pork dumplings, “adds historian Martin Franc.

Today, “retro buffets” are back in vogue, but according to France, this trend will not last long: “The demands on the quality of food and dining are completely different today. They are significantly higher than usual in old vending machines. “

According to him, most of today’s buffets will take a completely different path.

“It may take over certain visual retro elements, or try to establish the peculiar atmosphere of certain communities associated with the vending machine, but independently move the catering somewhere else to suit the current diner,” concludes Martin Franc.

And so he probably only remembers the past glory of buffet vending machines. Many of the witnesses still do. “Strawberry cocktail for the crown of seventy on the way from the cinema or from the dances in the Municipal House!” The writer Josef Duben (71) is still licked today.

“I can completely see the bartender scooping something strawberry pink on an ice cream spoon, pouring milk in a blender and then shaking the machine. I used to like it when the second portion came out on me, because it seemed thicker. “He was said to be willing to stand in front of this delicacy for a really long line.