Nation’s First Pizza ATM Proves Dreams Really Can Come True

Image courtesy of me and the sysop

Someone at Xavier University in Cincinnati must have a direct line to the gods of pizza (who rule our desires from atop their throne of cheese on Mount Pepperoni) because the Cincinnati place of higher learning is getting the country’s very first pizza ATM.

When the luckiest students in the entire world arrive back on campus, they’ll find the new addition serving fresh, “restaurant-quality” pizza in about three minutes, Cincinnati.com reported. The pizza ATM will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because everyone knows there’s no time like the present when it comes to pizza.

“We were looking for a way to solve this problem of having a late-night pizza option on campus,” Assistant Vice President Jude Kiah told Cincinnati.com, speaking of what sounds like a very serious concern. “This meets our students where they’re at in their residence hall.”

Here’s how it works: the university’s dining services will make 70 pizzas a day just for the machine. Customers select which type of pizza they want — pepperoni, cheese and veggie, or whatever is popular — and then the machine takes the pizza from a refrigerated compartment and puts it into a convection oven.

Three minutes later, the pizza drops into a box, which then shoots out of a slot at the bottom of the machine and into the arms of its new lover. Err, customer. Each pizza is 12 inches in diameter and costs $9.

If you’re dreaming of your very own pizza vending machine, start checking couch cushions: the contraption cost the school $55,000, which Kiah says is a cost-effective way to keep the students happy.

“We like the idea of being first and innovative and trying something new,” he said. “There’s one Pizza ATM in the U.S. and this is it.”

Meanwhile, students all around the country are looking into how tricky it’d be to transfer to Xavier right about now.

Xavier gets America’s first Pizza ATM [Cincinnati.com]

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