A SLICE OF NOVELTY
Ryan McEachran and his son Clark, 10, enjoy a slice dispensed by the new PizzaForno vending machine on Bank Street. The Senate Tavern-owned machine cooked up some controversy on social media as small businesses battle to make dough in lockdown.
Tempests, more often than not, come in teapots. This week in Ottawa, it was dispensed by a pizza vending machine.
On his social media on Tuesday, Anthony Balestra, owner of two Anthony's pizzerias in Ottawa and Eldorado Taco on Preston Street, took square aim at two recently arrived pizza vending machines that sell hot and cold pies outside the Senate Taverns on Clarence and Bank streets.
“So now us pizza restaurant owners have to battle COVID and compete against pizza vending machines,” wrote Balestra, who sells Neapolitan wood-fired pizzas at his Bank Street and Wellington Street West locations.
“You can get a pizza 24/7 from a machine but my establishment which pays taxes, employs people and has paid permits and liquor licence costs, cannot operate. Outstanding Ottawa once again!”
Balestra's snub generated more than 240 likes and a slew of comments, both pro and con.
The machine was not an attack on small businesses, the Senate said. “It is owned by our small business and will help us battle through this current situation.”
Given this kerfuffle, vendingmachine pizza was something I had to try, my editor said. Off then I went Wednesday night to order from the Bank Street machine.
It certainly was an attention-getter, my son and I thought. Promising artisanal pizza in three minutes, the PizzaForno-brand machine aroused our curiosity, and that of other customers before and after us who gave the machine a spin. A bit of subsequent Googling showed the machine was one of more than 20 PizzaForno machines in Ontario. Furthermore, there seem to be five other brands of pizza vending machines, including the pioneering, made-in-Italy Let's Pizza brand, which prefers the term “automated pizza kiosk” for its product.
PizzaForno describes its 12-inch pizzas as “made fresh by hand, with an authentic Italian approach that includes Romanstyle crust made with 100 per cent Italian Caputo flour.”
Each PizzaForno machine holds 70 freshly topped pizzas, which are stored in the refrigerated section of the automated oven. After a customer orders through the machine's touchscreen, “a robotic arm takes their selection from the refrigerated section, conveys it to a patented oven where it is baked to perfection, placed in a box and delivered to the consumer.”
Among the Bank Street machine's pizza choices were honey chèvre, barbecue chicken, pepperoni, four cheese blend, vegetarian and Hawaiian. It was out of the meat lover's pizza. We ordered the Hawaiian pizza, with a tap of the touch screen and a swipe of my debit card. About three minutes later, we left the street corner with a hot pie, which looked reasonably presentable, if not glorious, to eat in my car.
Upon closer inspection, we saw the pizza was not sliced. My son, the more attentive of us, then said something on the touch screen had mentioned we should have somehow gotten a “biodegradable” knife. So that gaffe was on us.
To be succinct — and I realize this is a very casual review — we did not enjoy our machine-made pizza. The far-from-crisp crust was the biggest problem. I know that true Neapolitan pizzas can come with wet centres and require knives and forks to be eaten. But the machine's pizza was extra-soggy and confounding to eat by hand, without tasting like anything special.
The next day, I reheated the leftover pizza and it was better and easier to eat. But I never got the sense I was enjoying artisanal pizza, much less food that cost $14.
In an interview, Balestra clarified he had not known the Senate owned the pizza machine, and he had not meant to go after another small business.
He was more frustrated, he said, with provincial and municipal governments and the continual disruptions to business they have wrought because of the pandemic. Balestra said he had spent $20,000 on patio furniture before Easter after the City of Ottawa encouraged patios to open, only to have the Ontario government prohibit patios from opening. He has also had to lay off 25 employees, he said.
“I wish the city would help us a bit more,” Balestra said. “I just want a level playing field for all of us. We just want a piece of the pie, if I can use that pun.”
I'm sympathetic to the plight of both Anthony's Pizza and the Senate Tavern, and think you should be, too. But with my curiosity assuaged, I can't see trying the pizza-machine pivot again.