Fast food, electronics and even baguettes are nothing new to vending machines in France, but a serious restaurant in Ruelle, in the Charente region, has taken it a step further, stocking the restaurant’s signature dishes in its own version of the Automat.
The restaurant, called La Cour, is run by Martine Valadas and her husband, invested in the €27,000 installation during the pandemic when restaurants were closed or restricted. It’s been popular and even surprising; on at least one occasion a diner arrived at 4 a.m. to buy a meal from the machine.
Valadas told French TV that “Twice a day, we fill the machine with fresh dishes cooked in our restaurant. Everything is homemade and we try to offer different dishes every day. The vending machine has a capacity of 40 fresh racks and we offer four to six different dishes a day.”
Purists may scoff…but at 4 a.m., the ris de veau is still better than a Big Mac.
