Cupcake ATM?
Yep, you betcha! That bubblegum-pink box is
indeed a cupcake atm. That's right, it hand delivers fresh cupcakes
directly to you after you swipe your atm or credit card.
Located outside of the (world?) famous
Sprinkles Cupcakes on Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, this
little bit of technology is available for your cupcake cravings 24 hours
a day.
Alex and I hung out in LA this weekend, and
while there decided to collect as many vegan treats as we could. At
least thats what I think we were doing, since by the end of the day I'd
eaten three cupcakes from three separate establishments. Oh well, you
win some, you lose some.
The cupcake atm is located on the wall
between the Sprinkles Cupcakery and the newest addition to the Sprinkles
family, the Sprinkles Ice Cream shop. We have yet to visit the ice
cream shop (they only have two sorbets-and I prefer cupcakes!), but
we're old vets of Sprinkles Cupcakes. The Newport Beach location is one
of the first places Alex took me when we started hanging out; we drove
down every couple of months after that to get our fill. This was
pre-vegan. Alex's favorite flavor was always red velvet, mine was
coconut. We'd always end up buying at least 4 and eating them all before
the night was over.
They were always perfectly moist and
delicious, with a very lightly sweet frosting. Not overly sugary sweet,
they always hit the spot.
We haven't been in a while, since being
vegan limited our selection pretty severely. For a long time they didn't
even offer a vegan cupcake. Now, they do.
After we found parking in one of the crowded
structures nearby, we walked down to Sprinkles. It was surprisingly not
busy for a summer afternoon, but it was a Monday, and it was 97 degrees
outside.
We walked straight up to the cupcake atm to
order. Being that it was so slow patron-wise, we probably could've
walked right into the actual cupcakery and probably bought a dozen vegan
cupcakes, but we came to experience the atm, and we weren't to be
deterred.
You have to tap the screen to get things
going; the screen responds by showing a complete list of all the
cupcakes (including vegan, gluten-free, and dog friendly treats!), one
at a time. There was at least a dozen before we hit the vegan option.
They offer just one vegan cupcake: a red velvet with creamy white
frosting.
Luckily for Alex, that's really all he wanted.
We bought one to share.
It cost $4, which is $.50 more than it would've been if we'd just paid inside, but we didn't mind.
The atm would be a great convenience on days
when the 'real' Sprinkles has a line out the door and down the block,
like it usually does on a sunny summer day. Its also kind of just fun to
use.
It's constantly being reloaded, dispensing
up to a thousand cupcakes a day, holding hundreds at any given time. But
don't stress, the cupcakes are always baked fresh right next store, so
you'll never end up with a crummy cupcake.
For which flavors Sprinkles is serving and when, click here.
For directions to the atm, click here.
If you live near LA, try it! It was neat and
something you can always tell stories about later. Plus, Sprinkles
makes a damn good cupcake, its worth the visit!
[And how cute is the edible sugar 'V' for vegan?]