Pizza-Dispensing ATMs Will Soon Take America By Storm

Last summer, Xavier University was the lucky recipient of a Pizza ATM, a vending machine that pumps out piping hot pizza made to order at the push of a button. The Pizza ATM was intended to address the serious lack of pizza at-the-ready when dining halls were closed.

Until now, Xavier's privileged late-night studiers and stoners have had exclusive access to this instant pizza sorcery, meaning the rest of America has had to push a button on their phones or—gasp—call a pizza spot for pizza on demand. But no longer.

Soon, Xavier's monopoly on the pizza vending machine will end, and Pizza ATMs will take America by storm.

According to WCPO Cincinatti, colleges and businesses in 20 states have inquired about installing Pizza ATMs, and the first wave of automatic pizza machines could be heading out this month. Demand was so overwhelming, a Pizza ATM representative told WCPO, that shipment of ATMs was delayed until company could sort out the high volume of orders.

You might expect a vending machine to churn out sad, cardboard pies straight out of the freezer aisle, but the Pizza ATM cooks up some surprisingly decent-looking pizza. At Xavier, dough and sauce are premade by the dining staff and kept in a refrigerated compartment. When a customer places an order, toppings (cheese, pepperoni, vegetables) are applied and the pizza is cooked in a convection oven. Within three minutes, the Pizza ATM shoots out a pizza, box and all. The contraption holds up to 70 12" rounds of dough.

Even though others will soon be able to enjoy the exquisite pleasures of push-button pizza, Xavier will still have an upper hand (or crust). When Xavier brought the first Pizza ATM to America, they turned to pizza vending machine pros from France, where, believe it or not, instant pizza at the push of a button is nothing new. Xavier's culinary staff trained with the experts at Paline, the company that makes Pizza ATMs, before the Xavier machine went live. Now, anyone hoping to install a pizza ATM will have to train at Xavier, where Paline runs a Pizza Chef School accredited by the "French Pizza Federation."

And Xavier will stay ahead of the pack with new specialty pizzas such as chicken bacon ranch and Buffalo chicken, as well as a loyalty program. It may seem easy to criticize someone who regularly orders pizza from a vending machine, but hey, at least that person is getting off the couch.

Decades ago, when we thought of the year 2017, we assumed we'd have real-deal hoverboards and flying cars. But let us be thankful for what we have. It's a new year, and we have indeed entered a brave new world—one full of Pizza ATMs.