And because this is Portland, where wacky vending machines are a dive-bar staple, it's also stocked with "Rick Astley for President" stickers, anti-"Moscow Mitch" face masks and still-valuable rolls of toilet paper.Īfter launching last week, Wakerhauser says it took only three days for the machine to make back her investment.
During the first week, the main draw was the item occupying the rotating "pop-up" slot with offerings from outside businesses: Chinese dumplings from dearly departed Sichuan palace Lucky Strike. She bought a refurbished 20-year-old machine from a supplier in Southeast Portland and began filling it daily with the items that have made Pix an after-dinner destination for two decades: decadent pies, rich mousses, truffle cakes, crème brûlées and those famous macarons.īut it's not just sweets bringing out the crowds. It's appropriate for the moment: She can make sales without having to interact with customers or handle cash, and the automation means it can operate 24 hours a day. Owner Cheryl Wakerhauser had the idea to revive the old-fashioned automat years ago, but, like a lot of restaurateurs forced to reevaluate how they do business over the past three months, it took the pandemic for her to finally give it a shot.
#Closest thing to chimex update
But the Pix-O-Matic, the new dessert-dispensing apparatus outside French pastry shop Pix Pâtisserie, isn't just a retro-chic update on the machines you used to grab an apple from in college, although that's partly the inspiration.įor one thing, the desserts are, well, from Pix.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, a dozen Portlanders lined up in the rain along East Burnside Street, waiting their turn at a freshly installed vending machine.Īt a glance, it would seem like the apotheosis of the city's well-documented queuing culture-a bunch of hypebeasts risking health and dryness just to grab a Milky Way and experience the thrill of standing single-file again.
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