Frank Hardart

Born as Franz Anton Hardart in the Bavarian community of Sondernheim, Frank Hardart was a very successful restauranteur in America. With business partner Joseph Horn, he launched Horn & Hardart, a chain of automated cafeterias that were the largest restaurant chain in America for decades until their decline in the 1960s. Very popular during the Great Depression, Horn & Hardart was waiter-less and featured coin-operated glass cases that dispensed food when a nickel was inserted. The restaurant sponsored an NBC radio show and television show, both called The Horn & Hardart Children's Hour, and Howard Schultz cites visiting Horn & Hardart as a boy as inspiring him to create Starbucks. Following Hardart's death, the restaurant chain's presidents were his sons Frank Hardart Jr. and Agustin Hardart, followed by it being run by his grandson Thomas Roche Hardart.