By Rick Hynum
Drones haven’t exactly transformed pizza delivery…yet. Jet’s Pizza and Pagliacci Pizza both vowed to implement the technology by the end of 2024—and it still hasn’t happened. But Anthony Pizzi, a pizza marketing consultant (aka @localpizzi) and founder of the NJ Pizza Alliance in New Jersey, knows it’s coming. And he’s giving drone delivery—and the adoption of other game-changing technologies—a friendly nudge with a one-of-a-kind event for pizzeria owners coming up on April 20.
xPizza Day, described as the world’s first event dedicated to pizza robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous delivery, will kick off that Monday at The Columbia Inn in Montville, New Jersey, and run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It will bring together pizzeria operators, technology companies, manufacturers and suppliers for a live, demonstration-based experience showcasing how emerging technologies are actively reshaping pizza production, ordering and delivery.
A highlight of the event: a drone pizza delivery executed by DEXA, an Ohio-based autonomous drone delivery company currently piloting a three-month program with Wonder and Grubhub in Green Brook, New Jersey. It will be the first live autonomous pizza delivery of its kind in the Northeastern U.S.
But drone delivery is just part of the show. xPizza Day will feature interactive demonstrations focused on Columbia Inn’s high-tech Cyber Pizza Trucks; the xRobotics Pizza Cube; a meet-and-greet with a PizzaBot G1 humanoid robot; a demo of Toast’s ToastIQ showcasing AI-powered ordering, menu intelligence and operational insights; and a demo by Palona AI, a next-generation AI phone ordering system built specifically for pizzerias.
Also participating in the event: Pepsi, RoboStore, Metro Exhibits, 24/7 Restaurant Equipment, Polly-O Cheese, Patty-O-Matic and Linea Dorry. Frank Cooney, the mayor of Montville, is expected to issue an official proclamation recognizing the significance of the event.
Solving Real-World Pizza Problems
There’s no question that drones, pizza-making robots and AI automation (not to mention driverless cars) will bring significant changes to the pizza community. Over time, it will almost certainly constitute a transformation of the industry—albeit one that takes place in baby steps. Regardless, the need for these technologies, Pizzi believes, is clearly there right now. “This really came from what I’ve seen firsthand working with pizzerias across New Jersey,” he said. “The same issues keep coming up: labor challenges, phones ringing nonstop, order errors, inconsistency during rushes, and operators being stretched too thin trying to manage everything at once.”
Meanwhile, everyone’s talking about new technologies that can address these problems, “but most of it isn’t being presented in a way that feels practical or relevant to the average pizzeria owner,” Pizzi said. “So the idea behind xPizza Day was to bridge that gap. Instead of talking about what these technologies could do, we wanted to show what they’re already doing and how they can realistically help solve some of the day-to-day problems operators are dealing with right now.”
xPizza Day is first and foremost an event for pizzeria owners and operators, Pizzi said. “Everything we’re doing is meant to be relevant to operators: how these systems work, what problems they solve, and how they could actually fit into a real shop. We did open it up to the public once we added the drone delivery, because there’s a lot of interest from consumers in where food and delivery are going. But the foundation of the event is still operator-focused. It’s about giving owners a chance to see these things in person and decide for themselves what makes sense for their business.”
“Each company represents a different part of the operation,” he continues. “You have ordering with AI, production with robotics, distribution and then delivery. What we’re trying to do is show how those pieces connect. In a real pizzeria, none of these things exist in isolation. They all affect each other. The Cyber Pizza Truck helps bring that idea to life. It’s a working pizza environment where we can demonstrate speed, efficiency and consistency in a very visible way. Not everything is fully integrated today, but that’s part of the point. We’re showing the direction things are moving and how these systems could eventually work together.”
‘It’s Not About Robots Making Pizza Better’
The Columbia Inn, known for its “Jersey Thinn” crusts, has a nearly 30-year history in Montville, but it’s not as old-school as you might think. Co-owner Fabio Antonio Arbelaez is a Tesla buff who took one of Elon Musk’s futuristic vehicles and repurposed it into the Cyber Pizza Truck, outfitted with a pizza oven powered by electricity straight from the truck itself. Columbia Inn now runs three Cyber Pizza Trucks for catering events across New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
The Cyber Pizza Truck has its predecessors; Zume Pizza, a pizza robotics pioneer, famously dispatched delivery trucks equipped with computer-operated pizza ovens around Silicon Valley about 10 years ago, only to go belly-up within a few years. Shortly thereafter, along came Stellar Pizza, founded by a squad of former SpaceX engineers, who put mobile pizzerias powered entirely by robots on the streets of L.A.—then quietly vanished.
But while foodbot startups have come and gone, The Columbia Inn already had brand-name recognition in the Northeast and plenty of demand for its food; the Cyber Pizza Trucks were developed, in fact, because the company had more catering business than it could handle with its conventional food truck. They have been racking up sales since 2024, and plans call for expansion to South Florida this year.
Even so, some pizzeria operators remain wary of high-tech advances and all the accompanying hype. That’s why Pizzi aims to present a clearer vision of pizza’s high-tech future. “There’s a stigma around robotics in the pizza industry, and most of it comes from misunderstanding what the technology is actually meant to do,” he said. “A lot of operators hear robotics and immediately think it’s about replacing people or changing the product. That’s not what this is. It’s not about a robot making pizza better. It’s about helping operators deliver the pizza they’ve already perfected, consistently, every time.
“At the event, we’re going to show that in a very real way. We’ll have one of the highest-rated pizzerias in New Jersey (Columbia Inn)—scored an 8.7 by Dave Portnoy—making their pizza using the xRobotics Pizza Cube. The product doesn’t change. The process becomes more consistent.”
Drone delivery, meanwhile, is sexy stuff, and xPizza Day attendees “will see a real delivery take place from start to finish,” Pizzi said. “A pizza will be prepared, loaded and dispatched through DEXA’s network. The drone will complete the delivery without a driver, using their live system. This isn’t something happening in a controlled demo environment. It’s happening as part of an active network. People will be able to watch it in real time and understand how it actually works.”
When it comes to technology, pizzeria owners aren’t exactly known as early adopters. PMQ can still point to operators who don’t even have a POS system or a website and like it that way. And, hey, good for them…as long as it works. But certain old-school ways just won’t hold up as owners age out of the business and customer expectations evolve.
“If we can get operators to step outside their comfort zone and actually see this technology in action, it starts to break down those barriers,” Pizzi said. “Not just for them, but for their customers too. And when that happens, adoption becomes easier. Operations become more stable. Staff are less overwhelmed. Owners have more control over their business.”
“That’s really the goal: Helping operators see this as a tool that supports what they already do well, not something that replaces it,” Pizzi added. “Some people are so quick to put down things they’ve never experienced nor understood. We are going to change that behavior.”
Rick Hynum is PMQ Pizza’s editor in chief.
