'Michigan wants crispy pizza': First pizza kiosk in West Michigan opens in Caledonia
CALEDONIA, Mich. — A new type of fast food in Caledonia is generating a lot of talk and serving up a lot of pizza.
Pizza kiosks are still relatively new to the U.S. There are roughly 42 of them scattered across the country. For comparison, in Europe, there are about 2,700.
Now, as the U.S. tries to play catch up, the first pizza kiosk location in West Michigan has arrived in Caledonia.
This 24 hour portable kiosk offers everything from plain cheese to pepperoni to breakfast pizza; and it's open 24/7.
Michael Schram is the license owner for West Michigan's pizza kiosk locations. Schram said, when referring to the process of ordering your pizza, "You touch the screen, you order the pizza, and within four minutes, it'll be out to you hot and ready to go."
Jason Lowder, Chief Marketing Officer for Pizza Forno, explains that if you're craving a pizza, the pizza kiosks offer two options.
Lowder says for option one, "You can choose to take and bake the product if you want, where the product comes right out." This way, you can take home the pizza and bake it however you want.
Option two, you can have the pizza baked on the spot. "It rotates and cooks at the selected temperature for the selected product," Lowder said.
In under four minutes, the pizza is ready and slides out the front of the machine, and if you know the kind of pizza you want ahead of time, you can order and reserve your pizza online for up to eight hours through the Pizza Forno App.
According to Lowder, there's already a clear favorite. "Michigan wants crispy pizza," Lowder said. So, they've even put a new crispier crust in the machines.
Lowder tells me this is just the beginning for these 24 hour pizza kiosks. "We are underestimating when we say that by the end of 2025 that we'll have over 1,000 units in the United States, and that's considering we've only got about 50 units in the United States today," Lowder said.
Schram says he plans to put 40 more pizza kiosks around West Michigan in the next five years so that everyone can get in on this 24 hour pizza.
