This Philly-founded company is selling empanadas out of vending machines. Here’s where to find them.

The fire-engine-red Empanadas United machine arrived in Philadelphia last fall. It appeared in the lobby under the SEPTA Regional Rail tracks at 30th Street Station, where yearslong renovations have shut restaurants, leaving a gap for automation to fill.

The empanada machine works like this: Tap your card. Choose one of four fillings. Whirr, beep, the ovens ignite, the rich smell rises. A minute passes. A pair of mottled, tan, crusted, half-moon-shaped empanadas, each bigger than a man’s hand, drop into a topless personal-pizza-sized box. The little plastic door opens, and your account is $8 lighter.

That’s a premium price compared to what you pay in Philly’s corner stores; but it costs extra to eat in a transit hub. The empanada machine is one of several rival meal-vending machines at the station, such as the California Pizza Kitchen machine that charges $12 for a plain, 7-inch pizza.

These turnovers were formed — from flour and fat, chicken or beef, sazon and cebolla — last night or yesterday, at Empanadas United. The Philadelphia-based empanada bakery serves restaurants across the region, from its base 15 blocks north of the train station.

The vending machine, assembled by LBX Food Robotics of Sunnyvale, Calif., used two ovens to finish the turnovers — convection for the crust, infrared for the fillings. It is also furnished with a microwave oven, for use with prepared foods, but the empanadas don’t need that. The machine sees steady use, say SEPTA staff who watch the busy lobby below the train platforms.

The machine is profitable, says Victor Tejada, the former Comcast designer who started Empanadas United in 2023. The bakery, using order software including Tejada’s Dominican Food App, was supplying empanadas to takeout customers at 160 stores, Tejada says, when he and his partners sold it last year to Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC). The acquirer says it has taken the brand national and expanded service to more than 500 locations — plus a handful of vending machines, starting with the one at 30th Street Station. Tejada stayed on to run the brand.

The Philadelphia empanada factory makes a fraction of the empanadas now sold under its name. In other cities they are made by local bakeries to Empanadas United specifications, according to Adam Robin, VDC’s chief operating officer.

Florida-based VDC focuses on taking local and celebrity food brands national, contracting chain restaurants, food delivery services, and other food retailers. They aim to set standards so the products can be reproduced in local plants anywhere and mass-marketed fresh. Its other brands include Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Cheesesteak, MrBeast Burger, and MLB Ballpark Bites.

VDC last year hired Evolvending, founded by former VDC executive Valentina Ellison, to deploy the Philly empanadas in machines at transit centers, as colorful working billboards for the brand.

“Empanadas United has a really excellent concept, Victor Tejada has an entrepreneurial spirit that we love working with, and we are growing the brand all over the country,” said VDC’s Robin. He learned the restaurant business as a teenager, rising from busboy to chef, and joined VDC as chief operating officer in 2021.

“We are a virtual dining company. We targeted this brand for acquisition, we bought it last year, we manage the online storefronts,” Robin added. The company has sold more than 2 million empanadas since the deal, and plans to sell six million this year, he said.

The machines, a small part of total Empanadas United distribution, each have 60 slots, each of which holds two empanadas, filled on a two-day cycle, according to Robin. If they sell out, that’s more than 20,000 empanadas and $80,000 per machine per year.

“They cover their costs. We are thinking of expanding them,” Robin says.

Evolvending has also put Empanadas United machines at Boston Logan Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. But it’s not yet at Philadelphia International Airport.

The company also hasn’t set up Empanadas United machines in its hometown of Miami yet, while it considers what flavors to offer in that large and diverse market, Robin said. Among empanada fans, “Some love Venezuelan, some Cuban, some Mexican, and some like fun flavors like apple pie.”