Picnic Works, Seattle-based innovator of food automation technology, today announces a partnership with MOTO to support the “odd” pizzeria’s expansion and make more of its highly-sought pie. With orders selling out months in advance, deploying the Picnic Pizza Station (lovingly named Otis) will allow MOTO to produce a higher volume of the artisan craft pizza that is taking Seattle by storm.
“The Picnic Pizza Station isn’t a vending machine that just makes one kind of pizza. We work with chefs to optimize for their recipes – so they get the exact result they want with each and every pizza,” says Scott Erickson, CMO of Picnic. “We’re intrigued by the vision of MOTO and how they are using technology to enhance an already incredible customer experience. We can’t wait to grow together and help bring this mouth-watering pizza to diners in Seattle and beyond.”
MOTO is an eclectic, pan style pizzeria that combines art and science to bring unconventional pizza concepts to foodies in Seattle – with toppings ranging from classic cheese and pepperoni to Filipino pork belly, fresh Dungeness crab and more. MOTO prioritizes cooking with fresh, nutritious and local ingredients, some of which are sourced from NW Farms, a vertical hydroponic farming company in the Pacific Northwest. As demand continues to rise, the pizzeria plans to open three additional locations over the next six months. MOTO will place the Picnic Pizza Station it nicknamed Otis in the new downtown location to ease and enhance production.
“MOTO was founded on the notion that our food should be nutritious and sourced near us to deliver the highest quality meal,” says Lee Kindell, Founder of MOTO. “With more and more people desperate to get their hands on creative concepts like our MR PIG and KISSD pizzas, we’re looking forward to Picnic helping us produce a higher volume of the peculiar pizza Seattle desires, without any sacrifice to taste.”
The Picnic Pizza Station can assemble up to 100 pizzas per hour, is autonomous and is completely customizable for each order. After loading the crust, the station takes care of applying all the toppings – sauce, cheese, fresh-cut pepperoni or others. The finished pizzas are then put in the kitchen’s ovens for baking.