Seattle pizzeria partners with Picnic Works to deploy food automation technology

Picnic Works, Seattle-based innovator of food automation technology, announced a partnership with MOTO to support the pizzeria's expansion. With orders selling out months in advance, deploying the Picnic Pizza Station (named Otis) will allow MOTO to produce a higher volume of the popular artisan craft pizza.

"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," Scott Erickson, CMO of Picnic, said in the announcement. "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."

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.

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.