Dylon Neumann has been operating a mobile pizza kitchen out of a converted school bus for a couple of years now, and he’s been doing his part to change the world one slice at a time. The Pizza Machine can usually be found around Cookeville or at various festivals, and recent Facebook and Instagram posts intimate that he might be popping up in East Nashville in the near future.
The self-described “entrepreneur and pizzaiolo” makes fresh gourmet pizzas from scratch using his own recipe and operates his business using an unusual model. When you order a pizza from him, it’s up to you to decide what you can afford to pay him for it and what you think he deserves for his efforts. And if you can’t spare any money for a meal, he’ll feed you for free.
Neumann depends on community support to maintain this model, putting aside a portion of each sale to create a kitty to help pay for those who can’t. The Pizza Machine was very visible around Cookeville in the wake of the March 2020 tornadoes that wreaked havoc on the community, giving away free meals to those who needed sustenance and feeding emergency responders.
If you like your pies with a side of Marxist labor theory of value (and who doesn’t?), and you happen to see the big yellow school bus rolling through East Nashville, let us know so we can try it out. If you’ve already sampled Neumann’s pizza, feel free to leave your review in the comments.
