Mac's Pizza Pub in Clifton Launching its State-of-the-Art Pizza Vending Machine

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Photo: Mac Ryan

Mac's Pizza Pub's new pizza vending machine

Hot, fresh pizza delivered right into your hands in just three minutes? It’ll soon be a thing at Mac’s Pizza Pub in Clifton thanks to their new, state-of-the-art pizza vending machine.

“It hasn’t even been turned on yet, and I’m receiving inquiries from UC, Aramark, the airport, all over the place,” pizzeria owner Mac Ryan told CityBeat.

The machine has been in the works for about a year now. Ryan said the idea came about as touchless and no-contact food ordering became more popular following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I went to a pizza convention in Las Vegas and I saw eight different manufacturers that had a variety of different mechanisms for vending machine options. And this one was absolutely, by far and away – nobody even close – the most competent, reliable, versatile machine out there that’s not using microwave technology,” Ryan said. “It’s phenomenal.”

And the vending machine not using microwave technology is something Ryan wants to emphasize. The vending machine is built with a hearth oven on the bottom and an air fryer on top. The machine is stocked once or twice a day using Mac’s food and it holds up to 98 products in it at once.

And not only can you order pizza from the machine, but its versatility allows you to order anything from Mac’s that can fit in a 1-and-three-quarters-inch box: wings, quesadillas, paninis, cookies, jalapeño poppers, etc.. All you have to do is put your order into the machine and it’s ready in three minutes.

Ryan says the machine can also be put indoors or outdoors, and it’s moveable, so it could be placed somewhere like Fountain Square for events or UC for football games. And the products can be swapped out depending on the customers.

The machine comes from a manufacturer in France, and while Ryan says there are about 1,000 located throughout Europe and Africa, the United States only has about seven.

“This is something that nobody in this region has,” Ryan said, adding it’s different from the Pizza ATM located on Xavier University’s campus, which uses microwave technology on the commissary’s frozen pizza.

“We shred our own cheese every day. We make our dough every day; we make our sauce every day. This is parbaked in our ovens and our machinery and then put into the machine where it is then cooked on a hearth oven on the bottom and an air fryer on top that completely, thoroughly cooks it as if it was in a pizzeria like any other, if not better,” Ryan said.

Ryan said Mac’s is planning on getting more machines, and the University of Cincinnati has shown interest in putting some of the machines on campus.

Mac’s Pizza Pub in Clifton is located at 205 W. McMillan St. The pizza vending machine should be fully operational starting Thursday.

More info: macspizzapub.com.