The tech powering Philadelphia’s 24/7 cheese dispensary

I had tapped my phone against the vending machine’s card reader to pay $16.99 for my precious bit of gooey heaven. 

It didn’t come with utensils, so I peeled the little wheel’s paper wrapping aside and bit into the wheel like a cupcake. The company’s signature product — which nabbed a silver at the 2023-2024 World Cheese Awards in Norway  — was tangy, creamy, mildly cool, and far superior to any actual cupcake.

Novel for Philadelphia, cheese vending machines are a familiar sight in rural areas of Europe, like the Swiss Alps. 

“They’re even in Paris!” said Yoav Perry, the managing partner, founder and head cheese maker at Perrystead, which opened in 2021. “Though it’s almost like a gimmick in Paris because there are fromageries all around and cheese vending machines aren’t needed,” he added, noting this might be the first time there’s been a connection made between Philly and the Alps. “The technology is familiar, but the setting is new.”

Its introduction to the environs of a mid-Atlantic urban street grid came as the answer to a retail conundrum. Three and a half years ago, the dairy opened a pollinator garden outside its wholesale production space. People walking by often ask, “Hey, can I buy some cheese?” — “It happens every day,” Perry said — but health regulations don’t allow a counter inside the facility.

“We have a production space that’s urban and at capacity, so I couldn’t really create a retail space,” Perry explained. 

While cheese vending machines aren’t yet standard in the US, refrigerated sandwich dispensers are, said Nora Vaughan, Perrystead’s director of operations. The team doesn’t have the bandwidth to do farmer’s markets and the closest retailer, Riverwards, is a 15-minute walk away, so they figured this would be a great solution. 

Perrystead Dairy’s vending machine is located outside its urban production facility at 1639 N. Hancock St. in Kensington (Kiki Aranita for Technical.ly)

“We want people to sit and enjoy their lunch and read a book there,” Perry said. “This cheese dispensary is an extension of that same invitation.”

Both Vaughan and Perry are clearly more than a little befuddled by the attention their creation has gotten. 

“Even the NY Post did an article!” Perry said, referencing a story that dubbed the dairy “the Carvana of cheese.” And yes, they’re really referring to it as a cheese “dispensary,” because, as Perry puts it, “Everyone loves their dispensaries these days.”

Tugging on the door of the Crane Shopper 2

Vaughan, the dairy’s director of operations, compared the vending machine to the Farmer’s Fridge at Philadelphia International Airport. 

It’s encased in a guard booth manufactured by York Guard Shack and originally ordered by Coca-Cola — guess they made extras — and Perrystead’s signature red happily happens to be the same hue as Coke’s. 

The guard booth is equipped with cameras and to some extent, is moisture and temperature controlled (it has a fan). It is also flanked by neon signs proclaiming “CHEESE” to curious passersby. 

Customers stepping into the booth encounter a vending model called the Crane Shopper 2, set on a slab of specially poured concrete. The guard shack protects the machine from the elements, and it’s equipped with thermometers and supposedly presents itself as out of order should temperatures become unbearable. What happens during a heatwave? “We will see,” Vaughn said.

The payment processing system is Nayax and sales and inventory are controlled through an app called MoMA. Perry has had to contact support, as the product mapping has not been super smooth. 

The Perrystead team is still working on programming and perfecting things, and they will soon be upgrading the payment system. When chef Michael Solomonov posted a video of the dispensary on Instagram, the news spread like wildfire…before the kinks were completely ironed out. For now, if anything goes haywire, the Perrystead team awaits Instagram DMs from customers to process refunds or take inquiries. 

To buy a product, customers use arrow buttons to browse rotating lazy Susan–style shelves. (Tip: Don’t pick something from an empty shelf. You will end up with no cheese.) 

Tap your phone or card against the payment processor, then choose your item by tugging its door handle until you hear a beep. Confirm your selection by tapping your phone again. The processor then indicates that you will be charged. The door for your item will unlock. You will need to grab your cheese within 60 seconds. Repeat the process for each additional item. 

The Perrystead cheese dispensary is a model of Crane Shopper 2 inside a guard booth originally produced for Coca-Cola (Kiki Aranita for Technical.ly)

This might be challenging if you’re inebriated. Given Perrystead’s proximity to Fishtown’s popular late-night bars, it’s been making a lot of 2 a.m. sales. Thankfully, the directions are clearly posted, walking customers through each step.

Making my purchase with Apple Pay caused the payment app to fritz, but dairy employees quickly reset the machine using the most trustworthy method around: unplugging and then replugging it. 

Employees have been restocking up to twice a day, Vaughan said, as cheese fans have descended en masse. 

A place for experimental offerings — and late-night snacks

Philadelphia doesn’t exactly have a reputation for treating robots nicely. This is, after all, the town where HitchBot was decapitated. 

“Do I expect shenanigans?” Perry asked. “Of course. That’s why we decided to make the whole thing cashless. It’s safer for the people who go there, and everyone feels more secure, and it’s safer for us. I think people appreciate that. I expect less blowing up and people turning themselves into fondue.”

And perhaps we’re getting more accustomed to robots and automation in this town. 

Since HitchBot’s demise nearly a decade ago, robots have started to bring you food and drink at several Chinatown restaurants, including EMei, Tom’s Dim Sum, Nine Ting and Chu Shang Spicy. In Rittenhouse, Kura Sushi uses a conveyor belt to deliver plates in addition to server bots, and since I last dined there a couple months ago, they seem relatively unscathed.

In addition to portioned cheese, the dispensary is currently stocked with tiny olive wood cheese boards, wheels of cheese and packets of charcuterie. Though the packaging for retail partners and the vending machine do not differ, cheese sent to distributors is younger, as it will spend more time in the supply chain. 

“When we put stuff in the machine, it’s aged for immediate consumption,” said Perry. “It’s perfectly ripe and ready to eat.” 

The dispensary is also a place where the team will reveal one-offs and deposit delicious experimental cheeses. 

“We have many different experiments,” Perry said, “from developing proof of concepts, blending with a new bacterial culture, or playing with different aging techniques.” These experimental wheels have no place in Perrystead’s supply chain as they’re not onboarded with suppliers and are often too expensive to mass-produce. “We’ll have 24 wheels of something — what do we do with it? Now we can drop it in the machine.”

Perrystead just launched a collaboration with Murray’s Cheese called “Umbra.” It’s only available at Murray’s NYC locations, online — and Perrystead’s cheese dispensary. 

“May is American Cheese Month, and this cheese is loosely based on the eclipse,” Perry said. “There’s one dark and one light ball. We’re giving Murray’s our Intergalactic curd and they’re aging it totally differently in their caves. There will be 50 of them and that’s it.”

I mentioned that I’d scurried back to my car to eat my own creamy, luscious Intergalactic, biting into it like a cupcake because I couldn’t find utensils. 

“We have those, too!” Perry said gleefully. I just didn’t see them. I was so distracted by the cheese. “They’re handcrafted in Lombardy, four for $12.99!”

This article has been updated to clarify the creamery’s founding date and details about dispensary sales.