Entry No. 57 — the Portland file — filed under: vending-machine
Pix Pâtisserie (Pix-O-Matic)
Cheryl Wakerhauser's pâtisserie has spent two decades doing precise French dessert work in a city that mostly wanted doughnuts, and its most Portland move is the Pix-O-Matic: an outdoor vending machine bolted to the East Burnside sidewalk that sells macarons, individual mousse cakes with names like Amelie and Une Fantôme, boxed chocolates, Spanish and Portuguese conservas, sourdough starter, cheese, French berets and the occasional Star Wars Pez dispenser. It's restocked several times a day, takes a contactless tap, and runs 24 hours except a brief dead window between 3 and 5am. There's a photo booth next to it that shoots stills and GIFs, and refrigerated pickup lockers for special-order cakes. The full bakery counter is in transition, but Can Bar — the indoor room and patio — opens Thursday through Saturday evenings for drinks and tinned seafood, and you're welcome to buy your dessert out of the machine and eat it inside with a glass of something. It is, functionally, a vending machine with a wine list.
→ Three more weird eats & drinks in Portland — never the same twice
The story
Cheryl Wakerhauser trained in southern France under Philippe Urraca, a holder of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France title, and started Pix in 2001 at the Portland Farmers Market. A Division Street shop followed that year; she ran two locations until closing the North Williams Avenue space in 2012 and consolidating into 2225 E Burnside, which opened August 22, 2012 alongside the adjoining Spanish bar, Bar Vivant. The wine program was never a sideline: Pix won The World of Fine Wine's award for World's Best Champagne and Sparkling Wine List nine consecutive times, 2014 through 2022 — every year it had existed — then stopped entering.
In May 2020, with the dining room dark, Pix bolted a refrigerated vending machine to the East Burnside sidewalk. The Pix-O-Matic runs 24 hours except roughly 3 to 5am, takes a contactless card and no cash, and is restocked daily by the pastry kitchen. Contents rotate, but the spine is the $12 individual desserts that made the shop's name: the Amélie, orange-vanilla crème brûlée over glazed chocolate mousse; the caramel-and-salted-almond Shazam; Un Fantôme. Around them sit macarons, boxed chocolates, Spanish and Portuguese conservas, French cheese, sourdough starter, berets and Star Wars Pez. A photo booth shoots stills and GIFs.
On August 22, 2022 — ten years to the day after it opened — the shop closed as a walk-in pâtisserie. The machines stayed, the special-order cakes stayed, and the building is becoming a space for cooking and wine classes and events. The old Bar Vivant room and the patio are now Can Bar, a tasting room run by Agrodolce Distilling Company: gin flights, batch-made canned cocktails, a 50/50 martini poured from a chilled machine, and more than fifty tinned seafoods, with the Pix cellar open by the bottle.
What it's like
Most of the time this is a sidewalk transaction, and that is not a consolation prize: you stand on East Burnside in front of a lit refrigerated case at whatever hour, tap a card, and collect a $12 French mousse cake to eat on the curb. There is no counter to walk up to and nobody to ask what's good — stock rotates, so the dessert you saw online may not be in tonight. Thursday through Saturday from 4pm the patio and part of the old dining room open as Can Bar, and the etiquette there is specific and encouraged: buy your dessert from the machine outside, carry it in, and order a glass to go with it. Last call is 10pm. Use the photo booth on the way out.
The move: Thursday through Saturday: get there around 9pm, buy two desserts and a tin of conservas from the Pix-O-Matic, take them into Can Bar for a glass each before the 10pm close, then use the photo booth on the way out. Any other night, this is the 2am stop — tap, collect a mousse cake, eat it on the curb.
📍 Before you go The Pix-O-Matic runs 24 hours a day except roughly 3–5am; it's contactless card only, no cash. Can Bar (indoor seating and patio, drinks plus tinned seafood) is Thursday–Saturday 4–10pm only — outside that window it's machine-and-sidewalk. The bakery counter itself is mid-transition, so don't plan on walking in for a case selection; whole cakes and special orders need about five days online or a phone call to 971-271-7166 and come out of the refrigerated pickup lockers next to the machine, seven days a week from 8am. Stock rotates constantly, so the specific dessert you saw online may not be in the carousel tonight.
- 📍 Portland
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 2225 E Burnside St, Portland, OR 97214
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Lone Fir Cemetery — Block 14 — Three blocks south on SE Morrison — the city's most freighted patch of buried history in daylight, then a $12 mousse cake out of a machine, which is roughly the emotional range of a Portland afternoon.
- Scotch Lodge — Twelve blocks west on SE 9th and downstairs: the natural nightcap on the nights Can Bar is closed, since the machine keeps working long after the bar does.
- The Goodfoot Lounge — Six blocks southeast on SE Stark, and the sequencing writes itself — soul night upstairs until late, then the 2am walk back to the sidewalk for dessert.
More weird in Portland
Good to know
Can I just walk in and buy a pastry from a case?
No. The shop closed to walk-ins on August 22, 2022, ten years to the day after the East Burnside location opened. What operates now is the Pix-O-Matic on the sidewalk (24 hours, minus roughly 3–5am), special-order cake pickup seven days a week from 8am, and Can Bar Thursday–Saturday, 4–10pm.
How do I pay, and what does it cost?
The machine is contactless card only — it takes no cash. Individual desserts are $12, a 6-inch cake is $62 and an 8-inch is $85. Gift cards come in $25 and $50 and can be mailed for a dollar.
How do I order a whole cake?
Five days' notice if you order online, or call 971-271-7166 to arrange something on a shorter fuse. Pickup runs seven days a week starting at 8am, so a birthday cake collected before work is a realistic plan.
Can we actually sit down with a drink?
Thursday through Saturday, 4–10pm, when Agrodolce Distilling's Can Bar runs the old Bar Vivant room and the patio: gin tasting, canned cocktails, a 50/50 martini from a chilled machine, tinned seafood boards, and the award-winning champagne list. Buying your dessert from the machine and eating it inside is explicitly welcomed. Check @canbar_pdx for periodic closures.
Is there anything seasonal worth timing a visit around?
In summer the courtyard becomes the Big Portland Bake Show, a free, all-ages restaging of the Great British Bake Off under a striped marquee — six amateur bakers, a signature, a technical and a showstopper, across three two-day weekends (June 27–28, July 18–19 and August 29–30 in 2026). Reserved seating sells out; free standing admission rotates the crowd at capacity.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia · wweek.com
last checked: 2026-08-26