Concourse B
exterior
LOCATION: Donatos (robotic) Pizza (John Glenn Airport, Concourse B, Columbus, OH)
GUEST(S): Scott Wiener
ORDER: 5 slices of Pepperoni
REVIEW:
Pizza ex machina. It begins.
In 2025, Ohio pizza chain Donatos installed a vending machine in Concourse B of John Glenn Columbus International Airport where robots make, bake, and cut their signature pies in six minutes. It's unreal... and perhaps a sobering peek into the possible future of pizza making—and hopefully not the demise of humanity.
A QR code kickstarts the whole operation, taking the hungry user to an order and check-out form. Then it’s all in the vending machine's robotic hands. Viewing windows enable you to watch your pizza come to life. First, you'll see Robot #1—which I call "Pre-bake bot"—grab a pre-made, uncooked, characteristically thin crust from the rack and place it on the saucer, where a steady stream of tomato sauce evenly rains down upon it. From here, Pre-bake bot moves the sauced crust down to the topper, where a generous amount of aged smoked provolone is layered on.
Then comes the pepperoni. Anyone who has ever been to a Donatos knows that their signature is a copious, edge-to-edge layering of pepperoni. This vending machine got the memo, loading up my pie with a more-than-generous helping of pep. Next, Pre-bake bot shuffles the fully topped uncooked pie into a conveyor belt oven for two minutes of intense heat.
When it exits out the other side, Robot #2—aka "Post-bake bot"—steps into action. Post-bake bot scrapes the piping hot pie from the baking screen onto a circular piece of cardboard, dusts it with grated Romano cheese, and maneuvers it to the slicing tool where it is cut into rectangular sectors. Finally, the finished pie is moved into your to-go plate and placed into a holding locker for you to claim with a four-digit code emailed straight to your phone.
At this stage of robotic development, I still prefer the taste of human-made pies over the automated version, but I was genuinely impressed. One pie is big enough for two, ready in minutes, and more affordable than most other food offerings at the typical airport. The fact that the bots successfully replicated the trademark Donatos crisp, thin, pepperoni-packed profile makes this human more than satisfied.
PHOTOS:
view from the air
available seating in Concourse B
pick-up window
condiments, lids, napkins
slice of Pepperoni
underside
day 13
pepperoni pie
VIDEO:
coming soon
MISCELLANEOUS:
Sean Taylor, Scott Wiener
1. Scott Wiener wisely pointed out that the big disagreement about pineapple on pizza only exists because a lot of people happen to like it. If anyone is curious on my take, I'm fine with pineapple on pizza. I prefer not to order it but I have had it on pizza in small quantities and liked the sweet and savory tandem with the other ingredients.
2. Scott and I were driven to the airport by my mom since our flights left from the same terminal 5 minutes apart to two different New York City airports.
RATING:
3.75/5
3.75/5- VALUE:
4/5 - AMBIENCE: 2/3
- TASTE:
7.5/10 - SERVICE: N/A
13/18 = .750 x 5 = 3.75
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