First Look: Nico’s Deli Has Installed a Retro-Futuristic Automat for Late-Night Sandwiches

Nico’s Deli opened in 2020 and was part of Melbourne’s new sandwich wave. Now, the team at Nico’s is taking inspiration from the past to move Melbourne’s sandwich culture forward – adding an automat in the space next door to its Fitzroy location. 

The self-serve concept is essentially a hot-food vending machine. Food is loaded into the back, customers make a selection and pay, then open a hatch to grab their meal. Nico’s late-night vending machine will dispense sandwiches and hot chips as late as 11pm.

The first automat – a sit-down restaurant – opened in Berlin in 1895 and the concept became popular across Europe during the early 1900s. Automats made their way to the United States, where they became an affordable staple of New York dining before the last one closed in 1991. Some remain in Amsterdam today, which is where Nico’s co-owners Marcus DeSantis, Leo Thompson and Tom Peasnell drew their inspiration from.

“Marcus was on a trip to Amsterdam and told us about FEBO, a Dutch fast food chain that serves food through these automats,” Thompson says. “It seemed like such a fun idea and we thought it would be a perfect way to extend our hours down here and offer something people might not have seen before.”

The automat at Nico’s has a retro-futuristic metal frame with glass viewing windows and looks like something out of Metropolis. It’s built into the wall and has 24 compartments for meals, which are still cooked and loaded fresh by staff behind the scenes, who run the automat from 7pm to 11pm. Built-in timers ensure a sandwich can’t be purchased if it has sat for too long. “We’re not just going to load the machine up and then dip,” Thompson says. 

The automat will serve hot food only. The launch menu, a collaboration with Heinz, features hot chips and four sandwiches: crispy chicken with lettuce, pickles and mayonnaise; a plant-based version of the same; a cheeseburger-style beef patty melt with American cheese, mustard, pickles and ketchup; and a fried panko-crumbed mozzarella sandwich.

It’s a grab-and-go concept, but there are some seats out the front and “people who know our little corner of Kerr Street know there’s plenty of spots to sit,” Thompson says.

Automats aren’t built in Australia, so Thompson and the team imported theirs through a local with overseas connections. “There’s an older guy with a workshop just outside of Melbourne. He has some connections to the company in the Netherlands that makes these,” Thompson says. “All the instructions were in Dutch, but we managed to decipher them and get everything installed properly.”

Despite the somewhat impersonal nature of automats, Thompson says the core experience at Nico’s isn’t changing, the team is just adding more options.

“Obviously, the face-to-face interaction between staff and customers is super important to us and a crucial part of the Nico’s experience,” Thompson says. “The automat is just another way to get Nico’s for people who might be more introverted, night owls or someone who just wants a novel experience – and the nature of it means we can provide that while keeping our staff working.”

Nico’s Deli Sandwich Automat
100 Kerr Street, Fitzroy
No phone

Hours:
Thu to Sat 7pm–11pm

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@nicos.melbourne